VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, the in clusion in the public schools of courses which have as their object the practical training of the pupils in the technical details of trades or professions, as dis tinguished from the purely academic courses of those schools in which Latin formed one of the chief studies. The first instance of vocational training is on record as the law passed by Massa chusetts, in 1642, which authorized the towns to educate the children of shift less parents in useful trades. Virginia passed a similar law in 1646. In 1824 the House of Refuge for delinquent boys was established in New York, which sought to make useful members of society of the children of criminal par ents. Later vocational training was ex tensively put into practice in reforma tories throughout the county. It was not till 1890, however, that the idea was introduced in schools for normal chil dren, but between that year and 1905 vocational training courses were intro duced in the public schools of over two hundred cities. It is now almost uni
versally a part of the curriculum of all public schools, especially in the high school grades. In February, 1917, the Smith-Hughes Act was passed by Con gress, which created a Federal Board of Vocational Education, which was grant ed a large appropriation by Congress for the purpose of instituting vocational training courses in the various States, largely for adults, in co-operation with the educational authorities of the States and municipalities. The main object was to provide for sailors and soldiers who had been injured and crippled during the war, so that they might be fitted for a return to civilian life.