High School Vocational Classes Are Stalling Out
 The push for academics further hurts trade courses and those who prefer them, critics say.
I still cannot understand the attitude of education officials, like California's Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who believe that every single student has to go to college. As quoted in this article on the demise of vocational education programs at the expense of more academic rigor in high schools, he says
"It's time to change high schools from the inside out, to focus … on their primary mission of preparing students to higher standards,"
Look, I undertand that the intentions are good, and that in the past minorities have been unjustly disproportionately pushed into vocational education programs, which is a discrimination we want to avoid. But the fact still remains that not everyone is college bound, nor does anyone need to be.
Sometimes I get the impression that there is an uderlying assumption in our culture that blue collar vocational skills are "inferior" to whitle collar academic skills. There could be no greater lie. All work is valuable, and ought to be rewarded for what it is worth. Lord knows how grateful I am for the skilled mechanic to whom I can take my car when it needs work, just as that mechanic must be grateful that someone like me has the skills and training to educate his child.
In fact, the the very trend of elbowing out vocational programs makes a statement that those trades--automotive, construction, electrical, culinary arts, among many others--are less valued by our political and educational leaders. I teach at a "comprehensive" high school, which means that the school offers programs that provide students three years of training in a trade that they choose before they enter the tenth grade. The school also offers a college preparatory program. It is all there. At least it was. Most of the vocational programs were phased out this year, in favor of a new restructuring of the school called "small learning communities." The SLC model offers students a choice of different mini academies which give them an academeic career focus--exactly like choosing a major in college. Academies include the Freshman Academy (perhaps one of the great benefits of th SLC system is that all the 9th graders are kept in one section of the building!:-)), Future Educators Academy, Academy of Sports Management, Academy of Commerce, and so on.
These are certainly good programs and may help direct students toward something they may want to pursue. But why do these have to come at the expense of the vocational programs. Why not keep the Academy of Automotive Technicians, Carpentry, Culinary Arts as options?
Not everyone needs to take the SAT, go to college, and become a certain kind of professional. Why try to fit so many round pegs into square holes? Everybody is different. I lose many of my immigrant ESOL students because they drop out to go work in the construction business with their fathers and uncles, and have no interest in learning British Literature, World History, and Chemistry. Would they have stayed if given the opportunity to develope their manual skills and look forward to being able to run or manage their own business someday? Many do stay and choose to follow the academic path, and that's wonderful and I encourage it. But what about the others? They are being left behind.
Raising standards does not mean every child has to look the same. The cookie-cutter approach does not work in a society of diversely talented individuals.
12:29:15 PM 
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