WORK, NOT TOIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24450, 8 November 1940, Page 10

WORK, NOT TOIL

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AIM SELF-EXPRESSION AND ABILITY PARAMOUNT CONSIDERATIONS It was essential that in vocational guidance work those engaged should from time to time have a mental stocktaking, and bring before themselves the aims and objects of vocational guidance instead <f adhering 'solely to routine, said Mr C. W Parkyn (Lecturer in Education at the Otago University), in an address a' the general meeting of the Dunedin Vocational Guidance Association last- night. He emphasised the fact that self-expression and the ability of those who were seeking work should be given paramount consideration, so that the employment they were advised to take up was work, as distinct from toil. What was meant by vocational guidance was explained by Mr Parkyn. It meant guidinr a child wisely in the choice of work, with full data on indi vidual ability and environment Voca tional guidance should be able to impart to the child the ability to guard in life's work against the work de generating into toil. There was ar important connection between schools and vocational guidance work, he said, and the latter came in. to crown the work of the schools. Considering the aims ol the whole business of guidance, Mr Parkyn said that in our lives work was all-import-ant, because most of our time was spent working. Work was important as an expression of living personalities. If if was not a source of self-expression it became toil. There was also the point of socia, usefulnes. Society could care for its own needs, but the individual was only too often merely a pawn in the game. Vocational guidance, therefore, should place emphasis on jobs giving the child his own selfexpression. Persons with a lifetime of work before them could not be happy unless they were using their full creative abilities. "The main part of a happy life is in making things one want's to make; if our work is not that it is merely toil," he said. Art was the outstanding example of this, Mr Parkyn said. It combined work and play intermingling on the highest level. Quoting from Nunn, he said: "The soul of art. like that of play, is the ioyous exercise of spontaneity."

This. then, was the aim of vocational guidance—to find for the applicant what was the labour at which he was most capable of finding the expression of his own capabilities. When this was found, the hours of work did not matter. They did, however, to the toiler, who was not happy For this reason the two paramount features of guidance should be based on ability and the nature of society and its needs Also to be strongly considered was the inequality of opportunity arising from family circumstances; the ability to find institutes for training: occupational instability such as periodical booms in certain trades: and occupational inadequacy, which was work that offered no opportunity to create. Vocational guidance should aim at giving everyone lobs of work, rot toil he concluded.