Vocational Education

Early Beginnings

In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a novel about an orphan boy who learned from interacting with his environment, as opposed to book learning. Rousseau believed that individuals did not necessarily have to be formally educated to obtain the skills for a successful life socially, morally, physically, and vocationally. This philosophy lent support to the idea that manual training was important for the development of cognitive advancement.

Nineteenth-century educational systems supported a social class differential in that the wealthy were deemed worthy of education while the working or lower classes were more suited to skilled or manual training. Pestalozzi, in the early 1800s, was one of the few advocates of the notion that individuals should not only learn manual skills but should also be taught to think. This was not a widespread viewpoint; however, this dissension was important in building the career and technical educational system that exists today.

Early American Vocational Schools

Apprenticeship programs in Europe (especially in Germany) had been established for centuries and were one of the first vocational educational designs implemented in the United States. An apprenticeship is an agreement with an employer for a specified time period in which the employer agrees to train a person in exchange for that person's labor. There were voluntary apprenticeships that were entered into freely and imposed apprenticeships whose purpose was to take care of the poor or orphaned. Apprenticeship agreements were formalized in writing, setting out the time frame and what would be exchanged: food, shelter, additional education, and so forth, from the teacher, and labor from the apprentice. Both girls and boys participated in apprenticeships, customarily from early adolescence to early adulthood, albeit the number of years of service did vary. This type of educational agreement was an important avenue for many citizens to obtain shelter and the skills for living and training in a specific trade.

Apprenticeships gradually declined in number because of the various industrial innovations that took place in the United States. With centralized manufacturing and division of labor, it was no [Page 921]longer necessary for an individual (master) to have all the skills necessary in terms of knowledge, experience, and attitudes to engage in a craft. Not until 1937 with the passage of the Fitzgerald Act was there a concerted effort to provide renewed standards and working relationships with business and industry. Many states passed laws and created councils to support the apprenticeship movement.

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