Commercial education
Thompson, Frank Victor, 1874-1921
37 3 Uw ?> B ffARSWE v<h MA rfWt* VA-^^AV'. LL CO. .Limited Bookbinders ^SSk. A TORONTO A) ONT. /< 3: Vl/«, 379.73 B936 1919 no.1 4 d United States. Office of Ed Monthly record of current e R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9515 379.73 B936 1919 no.1Sc1 Koos, Leonard Vincent, 1881 The adjustment of the teach R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9523 379.73 B936 1919 no.16d International Kindergarten The kindergarten curriculum R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9531 379.73 B936 1919 no.17c1 Montgomery, Walter Alexande Educational conditions in S R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9549 379.73 B936 1919 no.18c1 Thompson, Frank Victor, 187 Commercial education / by F R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9556 379.73 B936 1919 no.1 9 d Bishop, F. L. (Frederic Len Engineering education / by R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9564 379.73 B936 1919 no.20d University of Nebraska (Lin The rural teacher of Nebras R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9580 379.73 B936 1919 no.21 d Kandel, Isaac Leon, 1881-19 Education in Germany / by I R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9598 379.73 B936 1919 no.22 d \_(t * John, Walton Colcord, 1881- ** I * A survey of higher educatio W R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9606 379.73 B936 1919 no. 23 d rlli United States. Office of Ed ** Lit Monthly record of current e - R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY 9 19: BUIL 3NT< OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9614 379.73 B936 1919 no. 24 d Barclay, Lome Webster, 188 Educational work of the Boy R.W.B. JACKSON LIBRARY OISE CIR 3 0005 00028 9622 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/commercialeducatOOthomuoft DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF EDUCATION 0U;A/t/,. 7& I BULLETIN, 1919, N COMMERCIAL EDUCATION By FRANK V. THOMPSON SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY SCHOOLS BOSTON. MASS. [Advance sheets from Biennial Survey of Education in the United States, 1916-1918] WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 ADDITIONAL COriES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 5 CENTS PER COPY COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. By Frank V. Thompson, Superintendent of City Schooh, Boston, Mast. Contents.— Development of commercial education in public, schools— Federal Board for Vocational Education: Provision for commercial education— Report of the Committee on Business Education: Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education— School surveys and commercial education — Conclusion. The influence of industrial vocational education is having its effect upon practices and methods of commercial education. The practice of industrial education of analyzing a curriculum of subjects containing values of vocational work, related vocational, and non- vocational subjects is causing us to examine commercial education with a view to a more careful practice with respect to like items. We are accustomed to note a large proportion of our high-school pupils as pursuing commercial education. More strictly speaking, however, commercial pupils in our high schools are those pursuing general academic education with one or two commercial subjects, usually of clerical character. There has been little related com- mercial work required of our so-called commercial pupils and the non vocational or general academic subjects have been taught with complete disregard for the special needs of commercial pupils. A review of the historical development of commercial education easily explains the present situation. In the early days before the period of vocational education, no provision was made in educational curriculums for the training of boys and girls for office work or other commercial occupations. The private business school was first to see the need of a new train- ing and to effect an organization to meet this need. These institu- tions offered short intensive courses in bookkeeping and later in typewriting and shorthand. The history of the private commercial school is well known. This type of school rendered a real service at a time when the public-school authorities were either ignorant of the need or unwilling to meet it. The original commercial courses in public high schools were short intensive courses. This kind of organization immediately called down upon commercial educators severe criticism from those who were charged with the responsibility of administering public education, and from the public in general which was at that time quick to reflect the idealism and aloofness 109100°-1» 8 4 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. from life character of all educational enterprise. The natural result of this widespread criticism was to shake the faith of the commercial teachers in the type of training which they had received — that is, private commercial school training — and were recommending for the public school. It was not long before these teachers of commercial subjects began to pla}^ up to the academic standard so esteemed in the new educational fields in which they were workers, with the ultimate result that in the average high school commercial educa- tion simply represented a number of commercial elective subjects grouped with academic electives and distributed throughout the four-year program. Under the average conditions of high schools a few of these commercial subjects could be taken, and under the most favorable conditions many such subjects could be elected. It can be seen readily that this elective plan could effect no standard of commercial instruction, and as a result the product ranged all the way from reasonably efficient to wholly inefficient. Commercial pupils under this plan lacked the thoroughness and attention which vocational pupils in more modern vocational courses attain. By the com- promise described commercial educators succeeded in winning a place among educators in general, and were able to advance the cause of commercial education in a system not attempting any other kind of vocational work. In a subsequent period of educational development two years of commercial work were offered at the end of the high-school course. Only those who were able to continue through the four-year program were permitted to get commercial training. The result of this type of commercial course was that the large majority of boys and girls who had any claim on public commercial education were denied the privilege of getting it. The private commercial school waxed fat on this public-school program. The evolution of commercial education seems to be bringing us at this moment to a new and better conception of proper procedure. We are now attempting to meet the needs of boys and girls who attend high school in large numbers for the first two years, and who desire instruction in commercial subjects, by placing commercial work at the beginning of the course, but adapting this work to the stage of maturity of the younger pupils. The more technical and difficult commercial subjects are postponed to the latter part of the high-school course. Such a plan seems to meet more adequately the needs of all the pupils who resort to our high schools looking for the advantages possible under the limitations of time, capacity, and maturity. Our first-year high-school commercial work consists mainly of commercial arithmetic, penmanship, and elementary bookkeeping. In our second-year work are found more advanced bookkeeping, COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 5 typewriting, and simple office procedure. Stenography and still more advanced bookkeeping are reserved for the third and fourth years. In junior high schools commercial subjects are generally taught upon a prevocational basis. Many junior high schools in their efforts to furnish fullest opportunity for those pupils who will not proceed to the senior high school are offering somewhat technical and advanced courses in stenography and bookkeeping, too advanced foi the pupils who pursue the courses. To summarize the present stage of development of commercial education in our public high schools, it may be said that the present is a period of earnest and rapid readjustment. Mistakes and failures of the past are recognized, and earnest effort is made both to make the courses suitable to the ages and capacities of pupils and for the purpose of making most valuable the opportunities for commercial instruction for all pupils, irrespective of their educational limitations and vocational destinies. One of the most hopeful signs of a more adequate conception of the province of commercial education is the recognition that there are many commercial occupations other than those of bookkeeper and stenographer; that no boy or girl should be encouraged to apply for, or to accept, any position for which he or she is not qualified by matu- rity, general education, and special training; that the special apti- tudes of boys and girls should be taken into consideration in deter- mining the kind of position for which each one should be trained, and that new types of commercial education must be developed to meet newly discovered needs in the field of business training. As an illustration of the recognition of commercial occupations other than clerical may be mentioned the subject of retail selling. In no field of commercial education is there greater activity or need for educational facilities than in that of retail selling and retail store service. In the immediate future plans for meeting this need should be developed. This attempt will mean the development of a new department of business education, with specially qualified teachers and with methods of procedure specifically adapted to secure the ends sought. At the present time many cities are experimenting with courses in salesmanship, or, better named, retail selling. It would appear that the procedure of industrial vocational education had more in the way of suggestion for courses in retail selling than have our older courses in clerical practice. We have seen that our long-established commer- cial education has followed the academic procedure of the high school in teaching commercial subjects without field practice. Those best qualified to judge consider that salesmanship can not be effectively taught from textbooks alone unsupplemented by actual practice un- der supervised conditions. We can not expect that salesmanship can 6 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. develop as rapidly and with the same facility that clerical commercial education has shown. During the conditions of war and the stimulation of the labor market, the need for clerically-trained commercial workers has been more apparent than that of other commercial occupations. The wages offered for clerical workers has grown with the unusual de- mand. This condition may be expected to retard for the present the development of the teaching of salesmanship. Even under normal conditions the teaching of salesmanship has been involved in the social prejudice which seems widespread, namely, that the commercial employment of selling goods does not equal (in the minds of pupils and parents at least) the social grade that clerical workers enjoy. Particularly with girls the vocational motive is as apt to be found in social esteem as in the wage offered. Employers of labor seeking trained sales people will need to do much in the way of affecting public opinion concerning the worth and dignity of the sales person before our pupils in public schools may be expected to elect training in sales- manship in preference to the present esteemed clerical occupation. Various investigations such as Cleveland and Minneapolis have shown that selling is more seasonal in character than in clerical work. How- ever, any analysis of the process of selling will show that it is an art for which training may be offered as truly as that of clerical occupa- tion, but as long as there is keen competition both in wages and in social esteem among various commercial occupations, we may expect that boys and girls will still resort in greater numbers to the long established and tried clerical occupations. FEDERAL BOARD FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. PROVISION FOR COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. Among the several assistant directors for various types of voca- tional education is found provision for a specialist in commercial education. F. G. Nichols, formerly director of commercial education in the city of Rochester, N. Y., has been appointed to carry on this function. Commercial education may expect from a new national source advice, guidance, and assistance, limited heretofore in this country. It is expected that a State supervisor of commercial education will be appointed in each State; such a supervisor to be accountable to the assistant director of commercial education on the staff of the Federal Board for Vocational Education in Washington. We may expect that the character of teachers' qualifications may be formulated as the result of the new organization of forces. A better training for commercial teachers would seem probable both as the result of stimulation and advice of the national director, and also from the possibility of national funds which seem possible under COMMEECIAL EDUCATION. 7 the Smith-Hughes law. We are informed that certain kinds of commercial work where the vocational conditions are assured may- receive the same subvention that does industrial vocational work. For example, commercial pupils who take cooperative courses and work at intervals in the school and in the vocation under conditions of approval as to the character of the course may constitute a group for which national moneys can be granted. Courses in salesmanship, such as those maintained in Boston and Cleveland, may petition and likely receive the same proportion of national funds for such kinds of commercial education as do courses in improved industrial education. i- REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS EDUCATION. COMMISSION ON THE REORGANIZATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. In 1903 the National Education Association issued a brief report on commercial education, the chief feature of which was a recom- mendation of a commercial curriculum for general high schools. Since that date the association has offered no formal statement upon the subject of commercial education. Two years ago a committee consisting of Dr. Cheesman A. Herrick, president of Girard College, Philadelphia; F. G. Nichols, formerly director of commercial education, Rochester, N. Y., now assistant director of commercial education, Federal Board for Vocational Education; and F. V. Thompson, superintendent of schools, Boston, formulated a report now under revision by the reviewing committee on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Education Association. The report emanating from this committee can not fail to receive marked attention, due to the keen interest in the question of read- justment of commercial education now dominant in the minds of our administrators of secondary schools. No one who is familiar with the pronouncement of the National Education Association, in 1903, regarding the course of study can fail to see the progress and expansion of commercial education when comparing the single inflexible, largely academic course of 1903 with the manyfold flexible courses formulated at the present time. As an illustration of the modern development of commercial courses of study, the commercial curriculum for cosmopolitan high schools, adopted by Boston in 1917, is offered below. It will be noted that the commercial curriculum is divided into three distinct sections in the third and fourth years of the course. Commercial pupils by such a curriculum can specialize either for the accounting or bookkeeping side of commercial occupations, or for the stenographic, or for the vocation of selling. BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. COMMERCIAL CURRICULA. (To meet all requirements for commercial certificate.) FIRST YEAH. Required subjects. Physical training I Choral practice Hygiene English I Points. 2 1 1 5 Bookkeeping 1 4 or 5 Elective subjects. Points. History 1 8 or 5 Foreign language 1 5 Biology 1 3 or 4 Introductory science 3 Drawing I (freehand) 3 Domestic art 1 3 SECOND YEAR. Required subjects. Points. Physical training II 2 English II 4 or 5 Bookkeeping II 4 or 5 Commercial geography 3 E I ecti ve su bj eots. Poi nts Choral practice II 1 History of commerce 3 Foreign language II 4 or 5 Mathematics 1 5 Biology II 8 or 4 Drawing II (freehand) 3 Domestic art II 3 THIRD YEAR. Note. — At least one elective in the third and fourth year must be a Option" (a related vocational subject taught in a homogeneous division). Secretarial. ' Controlled Accounting. Required subjects. Points. Physical training III 2 English III 3or4 Bookkeeping III 4 or 5 Elective subjects. Choral practice III 1 Phonography 1 5 Typewriting 1 3 Merchandising 1 4 or 5 Civics 3 History III 3, 4, or 5 Foreign language III 4 or 5 Physics 1 3, 4, or 5 Chemistry 1 3, 4, or 5 Drawing III 3 Domestic art III 3 Required subjects. Points. Physical training III 2 English III 8 or 4 Phonography I „ 5 TypewritingI 3 Elective subjects. Choral practice III 1 Bookkeeping III 4 or 5 Merchandising 1 4 or 5 Civics 3 History III 8, 4, or 5 Foreign language III 4 or 5 Physics 1 3, 4, or 5 Chemistry 1 3, 4, or 5 Drawing III 3 Domestic art III 3 Merchandising. (Retail selling.) Required subjects. Points. Physical training III 2 English III 3or4 Merchandising 1 4 or 5 Elective subjects. Choral practice III 1 Phonography 1 5 Typewriting 1 3 Bookkeeping III 4 or 5 Elective subjects. Points. Civics 3 History III 3, 4, or 5 Foreign language III 4 or 5 Physics 1 3, 4, or 5 Chemistry 1 3, 4, or 5 Drawing III 3 Domestic art III 3 COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. FOURTH YEAR. Accounting. Required subjects. Points. Physical training IV 2 English IV 3, 4, or 5 Commercial law 1 3 Bookkeeping IV 4 or 5 OJiice practice 2 or 3 Elective subjects. Choral practice IV 1 Phonography II 5 Typewriting II 3 Merchandising II 4 or 5 Economics ' 3 or 4 Foreign language IV 4 or 5 Eistory IV 4 or 5 Civil service 3 Drawing IV 3 Domestic art IV 3 Merchandising. Required subjects. Points. Physical training IV 2 English IV 3, 4, or 5 Merchandising II 4 or 5 Elective subjects. Choral practice IV 1 Commercial law l 3 Bookkeeping IV 4 or 5 Office practice 2 or 3 Secretarial. Required subjects. Points. Physical training IV 2 English IV 3, 4 or 5 Phonography II 5 Typewriting II 3 Elective subjects. Choral practice IV 1 Commercial law * 3 Bookkeeping IV 4 or 5 Ollice practice 2 or 3 Merchandising II 4 or 5 Economics ' 3 or 4 Foreign language IV 4 or 5 History IV 3 Civil service 3 Drawing IV 3 Domestic art IV 3 (Retail selling.) Elective subjects. Points. Phonography IV 5 Typewriting IV 3 Economics ' 3 or 4 Foreign language IV 4 or 5 History IV 4 or 5 Civil service 3 Drawing IV 3 Domestic art IV 4 COMMERCIAL COURSE CERTIFICATES. A candidate for a commercial certificate must have completed a full course of train- ing in at least one of the three vocational groups — i. e., accounting, secretarial or mer- chandising, with a grade not less than B in any subject of the group. SCHOOL SURVEYS AND COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. Since the last report of the Commissioner of Education on com- mercial education, a number of surveys have been made, notable among them being those of Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis. In general, these surveys bear out the position of the Commissioner of Education's Report of 1915-16. As an instance of this, the survey in Cleveland draws a parallel between the actual commercial voca- tions found in that city and the public provisions for training workers in commercial occupations in the public high schools of the city. The situation depicted contains no surprises for those who are familiar with what was revealed in New York City by the Hauus inquiry of 1912. 1 In schools requiring both commercial law and economics, the former may be taken in the third year. 10 BIENNIAL SURVEY OF EDUCATION, 1916-1918. Briefly stated, the Cleveland survey shows what any survey invariably does — that commercial education in our public high schools pursues a policy quite independent of the business needs and conditions of the community under consideration. Commercial ed- ucation has been a thing of school credits and academic standards conducted in accordance with college entrance requirements or with abstract scholastic procedure. Commercial educators have neither seen nor apparently cared for the actual conditions of employment into which their graduates may go. The school prepares a certain prod- uct which business must take or leave just as it chooses. The Cleve- land survey makes a distinct point of the fact that boys and girls are trained alike for the same kinds of commercial occupations, whereas an actual survey of business conditions shows that the sex conditions of employment are quite different, males being found in excess in certain commercial employments and females in other kinds of com- mercial employment. Another pertinent criticism of the Cleveland survey is to the effect that commercial employments are taught simultaneously to the same pupils ; that is, our public high schools train our boys and girls to be both good bookkeepers and good stenographers, whereas business employment shows that the demand is for specialized workers in one field or the other. Figures pertinent to this point are as follows: In Cleveland, in large business concerns, it was found that the dual capacity of stenographer and bookkeeper was found in one instance in a thousand; in small businesses only in sixty instances to a thousand. The findings of this survey, as well as the findings in other like surveys, illustrate beyond dispute that commercial education in our public high schools has followed wholly the traditions of the school and has been oblivious to the field conditions of the vocation. There is a growing body of evidence, however, that there is a willingness to change our procedure. We may expect within the next five years to see sweeping and radical changes characterize commercial courses in our high schools. CONCLUSION. In general, the better type of four-year commercial course will continue to fulfill a real need and should be encouraged. The short- unit course will be found in part-time, extension, and preparatory day-school courses for boys and girls already employed. Evening school commercial work should be put on a practical and vocational basis, having in mind definite needs of definite groups of people; foreign-trade courses, in centers where such courses should be encour- aged, should be organized and given wide publicity; retail-selling education of a high character, both in connection with the four-year commercial course and the part-time evening school classes, should COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 11 be made available; more intelligent rules for the licensing of teachers should be worked out; adequate commercial teacher- training facili- ties that will insure the training of commercial teachers along the newer lines of commercial vocational education should be set up in every State; and the whole field of commercial education should be reorganized where necessary on the basis of vocational needs, individual aptitudes, and local requirements. o. 