There is hardly any doubt that the
remarkable success of this modest beginning was dependent upon the
admirable personality of the late organizer, who recognized the
individual features with unusual tact and acumen. But he himself had
no doubt that such a merely impressionistic method could not satisfy
the demands. He saw that a threefold advance would become necessary.
First, it was essential to analyze the objective relations of the many
hundred kinds of accessible vocations. Their economic, hygienic,
technical, and social elements ought to be examined so that every boy
and girl could receive reliable information as to the demands of the
vocation and as to the prospects and opportunities in it. Secondly, it
would become essential to interest the schools in all these complex
questions of vocational choice, so that, by observation of individual
tendencies and abilities of the pupils, the teachers might furnish
preparatory material for the work of the institute for vocational
guidance. Thirdly,--and this is for us the most important point,--he
saw that the methods had to be elaborated in such a way that the
personal traits and dispositions might be discovered with much
greater exactitude and with much richer detail than was possible
through what a mere call on the vocational counselor could unveil.[3]
It is well known how this Boston bureau has stimulated a number of
American cities to come forward with similar beginnings.
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