The Pre-Employment Training of Teachers of Vocational Agriculture to Conduct Supervised Farm Practice in All-Day Schools: Based on Data Secured Personally by the Author and with the Cooperation of the other Three Regional Agents of the Federal Board for Vocational Studies

Fifteen years have elapsed since the national vocational education act, commonly known as the Smith-Hughes Act, was passed by Congress and signed by President Wilson on February 23, 1917. In the meantime, the enrollment to all types of Federally-aided schools or departments of vocational agriculture has grown from a total of 15,450, in 1918, to 236,328, in 1931. In the light of this growth, it is interesting to study the wording of certain sections of the Smith-Hughes Act and the published reports of the Congressional hearings on that national legislation, which deal specifically with agricultural education, for the purpose of comparing the ideas and philosophies on vocational education to agriculture held by the framers of this legislation with the trends to its development since that time and as it is known today. To one who has made such a study it is evident that the major purpose to the minds of Congress when certain appropriations for the salaries of teachers of agricultural subjects were made available to the States, was to stimulate them in promoting a very specific and long neglected type of education which has for its major objective the more adequate preparation of persons 14 years of age and over "who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm or of the farm home.".