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An analysis of office work (OW) highlights the relationship between formal vocational qualifications and tacit knowledge gained through experience. In OW, "abstracted" skills (typewriting, correspondence) and theory are taught in schools out of their practical context and can become obsolete because of technological change. Some types of "abstract knowledge"(social competencies, personal attitudes) need to be learned in a work context. Historically, women were socialized to supportive roles and routinized work and were able to supply the "abstract knowledge" component of OW using their life experiences and roles. Changes in technology, work organization and career expectations (especially for women) require rethinking the role of school-based skills and workplace practice. General qualifications need to include the ability to cope with open situations in a non-routinized way. Skills, such as empathy, that were part of female gender roles should be incorporated into the formal qualifications for OW. The function of schooling should not mainly be to transfer technical skills and prescriptive knowledge, but to provide a space for reflective and critical training together with background and overview insights. (CG)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert