THE VESTIBULE SCHOOL
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servation, and certain very significant moral qualities
can be detected. For example, the instructor may find
that a pupil is very impatient under instruction, a quality
which augurs badly for future usefulness. Or a pupil may
betray signs of impatience with her work, such as tearing
up sheets upon which she had made a mistake, banging at
her typewriter, answering sharply, etc. She may show
signs of inattention and constantly repeat mistakes which
have been pointed out to her. It may be discovered that a
pupil has certain objectionable habits which, if not eliminated,
will create havoc among the girls or men in the
main office. She may frequently be late in arriving, or
consume too much time in personal attentions. These
and a hundred other negative qualities may appear during
this period, and every one of them is a source of labor
turnover. However, under the special conditions of the
vestibule school, these traits may be discovered in time,
and at the hands of competent instructors many corrections
can be made.
If an individual is incorrigible, that fact can be ascertained
and the pupil dropped. One of the great sources of
difficulty in the present day large organization is the
presence of driftwood; that is, incapable employees who
have slipped past the employment manager and obtained
positions, and whom the office heads have not the heart
to discharge. The writer has seen numerous instances of
this kind. Such employees are often sent from post to
post in the organization, a constant source of trouble not
only to their superiors but to themselves. Finally, some
merciful chance does for the organization what should
have been done at the outset. The employee either
happens to light on some congenial work or gives up in
despair. Even if the tests fail, the vestibule school is
