V. Operational Procedures for Work Experience Pro grams-Continued COMPLIANCE WITH LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL REGULA- OTHER PROBLEMS OF OPERATING WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAMS. The Need for a Parallel of Classes in Community Relations and Records and Reports----. Forms Used in Operating Work Experience Programs.. Appendix.. Publications From City and County Boards of Education, From Publications From the United States Department of Labor.. Books, Pamphlets, Articles From Periodicals and Other Publications Foreword T IS BELIEVED that superintendents and principals, school board members, teachers, and employers and other lay citizens—in fact, all those persons who help to decide on public-school curriculums have need for a bulletin in which information is made available concerning work experience education programs. They should be informed about selected publications which describe this program. Enough background material should be made available for them to review the recent development of work as a part of secondary education in American schools. School authorities need to develop an awareness of the educative values in the normal work activities of children and youth, and learn about methods of integrating these experiences in the school program. Teachers and officials need to recognize that there are several types of work experience programs, and that one or all may be put into operation in a single school. Busy school officials need descriptions of several types of work experience programs in order to consider their use locally. Finally, a brief summary of methods of initiating and conducting a work experience education program is needed to serve as a guide on the operational level. This bulletin is designed to serve the local school official who wants to initiate a work experience education program or to assist in evaluation of a program already in operation. Since this bulletin is intended to be a guidebook for those who are interested in initiating a work experience program in a local school system, all types of schoolwork programs are considered, including those designed specifically as vocational preparation for chosen occupations. Included also are those types of work experience, sponsored, planned, and supervised by the school for their general developmental values. The study is limited to work performed during released schooltime. It includes descriptions of some unpaid work experience programs and some work experience programs without high school credit. Because of the special nature of the program, work done by students in vocational agriculture is not included in this study. WAYNE O. REED, Assistant Commissioner for Educational Services. Director, Instruction, Organization, and Services Branch. VII IT I. Introduction to the Study of Work Experience Education T IS a common belief in the United States that American youth should prepare for full and successful lives by continuing their formal education at least through the high school. It is also generally believed that every able adult citizen should contribute to the well-being and prosperity of the Nation through productive work. If the ability to work must be learned-and is not a natural talent-then the inclusion of work experience in the education of young people is essential. Work experience has always been important in the growing-up process. Many forms of schoolwork experiences have been developed in American public schools. Full realization of the place of work education programs will be achieved only when secondary school leaders understand that there are many kinds of schoolwork programs, when they recognize the purposes and values of each kind, and when they seek to adopt locally those programs of work experience education best suited to community and youth needs. It is hoped that this bulletin on work experience education in the secondary schools of the United States will be helpful to educators interested in developing school-supervised work experience programs which are suited to local needs. Terminology Many terms and combinations of terms are used to describe the attempts made through the public schools to provide part-time occupational experiences for students as a part of the school curriculum. The term "cooperative education" was used to describe the earliest American experiments at the University of Cincinnati in 1906. High school cooperative courses were introduced a few years later. "Cooperative diversified occupations" as a term was first used in Southern States to refer to work experience programs in high schools, generally subsidized by State boards for vocational education through the use of State and Federal vocational education funds. The work programs organized for youth in the depression period of the thirties, helped to mold an opinion among school administrators favorable to the educational values of these activities for young people. Projects were designed to give the young worker an opportunity to try several types of jobs and to acquire desirable work habits and attitudes. |