CHAPTER XIX THE TRAINING ADAPTED TO INDIVIDUAL NEEDS The process of reëducation a civilian function - The sense of individual responsibility and initiative atrophied in miliIts stimulation a primary purposetary service - Vocacational rehabilitation an individual problem - Institutional facilities open to the Federal Board for Vocational Education Practical workshop classes a concentrated apprenticeship-Wide range of occupations and courses available Assistance to complete interrupted college courses- - Illiteracy in the draft- - Disabled illiterates to receive a fundamental education - - Vocational instruction given in small groups. - When the disabled man finally passes out of the hospital and the curative workshop, when all has been done for him physically and mentally that medical or surgical science can afford, he is discharged from the Army or the Navy. He is thenceforth a civilian, being reeducated for civilian life and responsibilities through the medium of a civilian agency. There was a definite purpose in thus cutting the bonds that attach the man to military life. In the service he has been subject to authority every moment of his time. Initiative and individual responsibility have necessarily been submerged in the mass. His every act has been regulated according to a schedule in which his part is only to follow and obey. He has given no thought, nor has he had any choice, as to where and when and what to eat, or what to wear, or how to employ his time. In a short while he has become, in large measure, dependent upon having his existence arranged and ordered for him. It is sur prising how soon a man becomes dependent upon conditions of this sort, and how slow his readjustment is when he is again "on his own." It is best that his dormant sense of responsibility and initiative be stimulated from the start as an invaluable asset for his reëntrance into civil life, in which these two qualities or their absence count for so much as a help or as a deterent to the individual. Hence, Congress wisely decided that for the good of the man himself, the work of vocational reeducation should be a purely civilian function. The only discipline to which the student is subjected is the loss of his pay should he wilfully neglect his studies or fail to exercise reasonable diligence in pursuing his course, with the ultimate withdrawal of the privilege of reeducation when he is obviously not interested and is making no effort to progress. In no other line of instruction as in the retraining of the disabled is the necessity so great for individual attention to the student. The men cannot be grouped into broad divisions or classifications, either by injuries or by trades. It cannot be said that this, that, or the other is a proper occupation for a one-armed man or a one-legged man or a tuberculous man. It may be a trade suitable for a one-armed man, but is the man suited to the occupation? Is the loss of an arm the whole of his disability? Has he any previous experience in that or an allied calling? Is there a demand for such workmen, or opportunities in such a trade near where he lives and has his savings, his home, his acquaintances, friends and relatives? And finally, most important of all, does the man himself want to take up that occupation, and is he interested in that method of making a living? For, unless he is interested in it, believes in it and its worth, and earnestly wants to utilize it as a means of livelihood, it is worse than useless to expend the time, money and effort in endeavoring to fit him for it. Hence, the problem obviously resolves itself into one of individual treatment from the very beginning, with many different angles and phases to be considered. Hence, also, the instruction must be along individual lines if proper results are to be had. After the man has consulted with the vocational adviser in the hospitals and has determined for what he wants to be reëducated, and the medical authorities have approved his choice from the standpoint of his physical abilities and future physical welfare, and after he has left the curative workshop, the Federal Board for Vocational Education automatically takes charge of his education and the real course of training begins. This education is not being administered in large cantonments, camps or specially created institutions or workshop hospitals, with an exception perhaps in the case of tuberculous patients, who must have certain special conditions for continuous treatment while engaged in qualifying, so that they build health at the same time as they receive instruction. There is a wealth of institutional material available in the country which has the equipment and facilities to give almost any instruction called for in practical lines. Nearly all of the states have "land-grant colleges," better known as "colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts," where the whole range of agriculture, dairying and its branches, stock raising, poultry raising, bee-keeping, small-fruit growing, truck farming, market gardening, the florist's and gardener's occupations, and the like may be learned thoroughly and practically. Many of these institutions. also have mechanical equipment enabling them to instruct in various lines, such as farm-machinery operation, care and repair, the machinist's trade, woodworking in its various branches, textiles and its branches; and a few of them have more elaborate facilities for instruction in trades and in industrial occupations. There are also at various points trade schools and technological institutions of high grade, in which the whole of education under these heads is covered. There are also other excellent schools and colleges teaching more specialized callings. A programme was formulated by the Federal Board to give even more practical instruction than that outlined above. Classes in certain industries are arranged and put in works under the tuition of highly skilled operatives and teachers. The result is a sort of concentrated and scientific apprenticeship by which the students accomplish in a term of months that which in ordinary circumstances requires an apprenticeship of several years. Having qualified as a competent man in the subject of his training, the student. makes the transition from the status of learner to that of worker in familiar surroundings and in a trade in which he has received instruction from experts who make their living by that trade. The merely theoretical teacher is barred. He must not only be able to tell how a thing or a process is done, but he must be able to do it. The impression must not be gained that the education furnished by the Federal Board is necessarily in trades alone or in manual work or the like, for such is by no means the case. A large proportion of the subjects for vocational reëducation are men who can only follow an occupation under very especial conditions. Such, for instance, are men with arrested cases of tuberculosis. Men thus afflicted must have an out-ofdoors life, with a maximum of fresh air and sunshine and a minimum of exertion. They will perhaps be given courses in poultry raising real scientific training by men who have made commercial successes on their own account. The instruction is given possibly upon a poultry farm, arrangements having been made to that end by the Federal Board. Or the student may desire to take up market gardening or truck farming, or the growing of flowers, plants and bulbs in the open for sale to dealers and the trade generally; or he may fancy growing violets and other such plants under glass; or he may want to take a course in civil engineering or forestry, or as an orchardist, or in cattle raising. All of these occupations, and many others, are at his disposal to make a choice from. The number of courses available approaches the 400 mark. An examination of the first 159 cases approved for training by the Federal Board is most interesting. There are 63 different trades represented in this number of cases. The most numerous class is that of agriculture and allied occupations or specializations — 25; the next is commercial education, with general business education following a close third. The elections of the 159 cases are divided as follows: Academic. 168 18 |