condition is deplorable. It not only shows a lack of interest in the
boy's welfare on the part of the parents, but also places the youthful
applicant in an unfair position. Oftentimes, owing to inexperience, a
boy accepts a position without inquiring into the details and nature of
the same. His main thought is the amount of the wage to be received.
Consequently there is but one obvious result. The hours are excessive,
the work is beyond the boy's strength or is hazardous, and finally the
lad withdraws without notice. It is this general apathy on the part of
the parents of a boy, combined with over-zealousness on the part of an
ordinary employer to secure boy labor for a mere trifle, that accounts
for the instability of juvenile labor."

The coming of vacation invariably brings a great influx of boys to the
State employment office, some looking for summer work, others for
permanent employment. Most of them show lack of intelligent
constructive thought on the matter in hand. Few of them have had any
counsel, or any valuable counsel from their parents or others. To Mr.
Sears and his assistants--and they have become very proficient at it--is
left the task of vocational guidance, within such limitations as those
of time and equipment. What can be done to get the boy and his sponsors
to thinking intelligently about the question of an occupation for the
boy, with proper regard to their mutual fitness?

Superintendent Sears has some suggestions to offer. In his opinion the
subject of occupational choice should be debated thoroughly in the
public schools. He favors the introduction of some plan embodying this
idea in the upper grades of the grammar school, under conditions that
would give each boy an opportunity to talk, and that would encourage him
to consult his parents and teachers. The debates might be held monthly,
and preparation should be required. Experts or successful men in various