Life Adjustment Education for Every Youth. Bulletin, 1951, No. 22

A number of conditions are responsible for the disparity between the widely held educational ideal and the disturbing fact that even today about 30 percent of the youth do not even begin high school and 30 percent more do not complete the work begun. Foremost among the deterrents to high-school attendance are: The need or the desire to help earn income; lack of funds, clothing, or similar problems of the pupils; inaccessibility of suitable schools and courses of instruction; and finally, failure of too many schools or teachers to provide high-school instruction having sufficient meaning, value, and appeal to the pupils and their parents to overcome deterrents to high-school attendance. It has been abundantly demonstrated that almost any apparent block to high-school attendance can be overcome where there is an all-impelling interest in doing so. The last-named factor, therefore, entails all of the others. It is this factor--namely, the development, try-out, and spread of programs of instruction which will have greater, value, meaning, and appeal to more of the youth of high-school age--which is the major concern of this report and the regional and national conferences to which it relates. This report consists of three major parts: Part I explains the purposes and proposed activities of the recently appointed Commission on Life Adjustment Education for Youth; part II describes the origin, composition, and recommendations for the National Conference on "Life Adjustment Education" (Prosser Resolution authored by Charles A. Prosser) held in Chicago, May 8-10, 1947, preceding the appointment of the commission; and part III presents "Common Understandings for a Program of Action." The purpose of parts I and II is to provide information on the steps thus far taken as a result of the Prosser Resolution (quoted in full early in part II); part III represents an effort to show illustratively what the resolution means in terms of problems and changes to be faced by American secondary education. Three appendixes present: (1) An Emphasis Upon Reality; (2) The Role of Practical Arts Education; and (3) Educational Leaders Attending the National Conference. (Contains 81 footnotes.) [Prepared in the Division of Secondary Education and the Division of Vocational Education. The following staff members were responsible for formulating this final report: J. Dan Hull, Walter H. Gaumnitz, and Grace S. Wright. Best copy available has been provided.]