WHAT THE BOY THINKS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 159, 31 March 1919, Page 8

WHAT THE BOY THINKS

; . ■<! , CHOICE OF A PROFESSION. • A' great deal has -been 6aitf and written atout'schools and (education, but. no one ever thinks of asking boys, who ought to know- as well as anyone else, what their opinion-is on the way they are taught. We are .supposed (writes "A' Candidate for Osborne in the ''Daily to be trained for our professions at school, buit are very seldom given any chan-ce of choosing this profession or healing what the different professions are like. Why cannot lecturers be sent rrnind the country to tell boys, and girls too, all about the various professions? I havo hoard two lectures of this Sort in threo years. One of them' was about getting into the Koyal .Air Force, nnd the' other about doctoring as a profession. Why cannot this sort of lecture 'bo a regular part of education'

To begin with, a boy wants to be a pirate or an .engine-driver or some, such person and does not see that other professions can have any interest or excitement; and though a schoolboy laughs at such things and thinks he is very old and wise, he is not much better in this respect than ho was' a$ a small boy. It is therefore rytiite wrong that boys should take up a profession, as naval cadets do, as early as 13{. They cannot possibly know at that whether there are not other professions that they would prefer. It is much better, as I believe people aro beginning to s find out, to go into the Navy at 17 or so, because then you really know what you want to do and are Inore in earnest and determined. Is there any renl Vronson" why Osborne should exist? It costs the country <£100,-' 000 a year, nnd produces people who are less keen and no better than those who come, in at 17.

The averago boy only knows of the common professions, such as soldier, sailor, doctor, schoolmaster, and clergyman. Buit during last. Christmas I heard of two profesions that I n&vor knew existed. One boy I met was going to lie a pilot on' the Indian rivers, a sen-ice that, it seeiits, is very well paid ,and is certainly vor.v' little known, Another boy was • told that paper-making .was going to 'be one. of the great trades of the world during tho next ten years or :so, and that to succeed at it you needed to learn ell about water-power as well as •to study a special form of chemistry. Now. paper manufacturing is not the Sort of profession that any boy would ,ho.likely to choose—merely because he has never had a chance of realising that it is a profession which anyone goes in for, though thorn arc paper works all over the world. Tho -existence of all .theso professions ought to be made clear to. boys at school when they are young and have plenty of time to decide, so that they may be •sure'what to do, when tho time comes. This is especially necessary now, as a number of new professions are coming into existence. For example, there will soon bo posts in the coming Transatlantic air service and on other air routes all over tho world. And' surely nothing could teach you better what the world 'is like- than lecturos on the various ways in which tho work of tho world is done?