each week to the study of economic and working conditions in wage
earning industrial and commercial occupations. A clear understanding
of the comparative advantages of different kinds of employment is of
the highest importance at this period of the boy's life. It seems to
be generally assumed that an adequate basis of knowledge for the
selection of an industrial vocation is an acquaintance with materials
and processes. Such knowledge is valuable, but making a living is
mainly an economic problem. What an occupation means in terms of
income is more significant than what it means in terms of materials.
The most important facts about the cabinet making trade, for example,
are that it offers very few opportunities for employment to public
school boys, and that it is one of the lowest paid skilled trades. The
primary considerations in the intelligent selection of a vocation
relate to wages, steadiness of employment, health risks, opportunities
for advancement, apprenticeship conditions, union regulations, and the
number of chances there are for getting into it. These things are
fundamental, and any one of them may well take precedence over the
matter of whether the tastes of the future wage-earner run to wood,
brick, stone, or steel.




CHAPTER VII

TRADE TRAINING DURING THE LAST YEARS IN SCHOOL


Between the end of the compulsory attendance period and the entering
age in most of the trades there exists a gap of from one to two years