Don't Job Shadow Me

Several readers said academic courses in high school are supposed to do more than get us ready for four years of college lectures and kegger parties. Wayne Wolfinger said that to him, a high school diploma "doesn't mean we'll have 18-year-old brain surgeons or rocket scientists. It means enough education to understand yourself, your society and how you will function in your society. It means enough education to provide for your family. It means enough education to know right from wrong."

I heard from educators who have had success combining academic and career lessons. Diane Neal, while a school board member in Freeport, Ill., served on a consortium board that organized a youth apprenticeship program that involved both classroom and jobsite work.

Janet B. Bray, executive director of the Alexandria-based Association for Career and Technical Education, made the strongest case for more emphasis on CTE. She cited recent data showing that students offered such programs are less likely to drop out and more likely to do better on state tests that the general student population. She described high school health care career academies that "would be just as beneficial for students who plan to become doctors as it would for students who want to become lab techs."

But Kathy Kelley, who teaches vocational early childhood education courses at Chabot Community College in Hayward, Calif., warned that both Peters and I are naïve about saving struggling high school students with just his career and technical program or my college preparation courses.

"We struggle to present required early childhood education content to a group largely made up of students who are not familiar with the elements of a book! No exaggeration!" she said. "I spend probably 10 to 20 percent of the semester in two of four core courses required by state licensing regulations delivering basic study skills content rather than the extensive list of topics necessary to even introduce the subject matter. Students appear to have been passed along by teachers in lower grades despite an inability to even read capably or think critically."

As Kelley points out, these students are not looking for the $15-and-more-an-hour jobs Peters wants his students prepared for. All they seek are day-care and pre-school jobs, but in this era even those jobs require credentials that cannot be obtained without the ability to read and understand fairly complicated material.

I share Peters' eagerness to get students going on their desired life journeys. They may have realized that job-shadowing Mathews is not the best way to do that, since none of the high schools who asked about my availability have called me back. Looking ahead to an interesting career is fine, but is best used as a way to inspire attention students' current tasks -- making sure they can read, write and handle math the way everyone from carpenters to cardiologists have to do these days.

All honest work has honor and value. And the academic and occupational skills Peters and I have put in separate categories may not be so different after all. High schools -- as well as elementary and middle schools -- must make sure each student is comfortable with words and numbers, or they are not going to get anywhere near where they would like to be.