Taking Shop Class to a Higher Level

As Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and a camera-toting crew walked into the Arlington Career Center on a recent Tuesday, 17-year-old Steven Amaya stood alone by a pillar, away from the crowd.

He watched, apparently unimpressed.

"To tell you the truth," Amaya said later, "I didn't know who he was."

But as Kaine (D) entered a room filled with teachers, administrators and out-of-state visitors, Amaya grew interested enough to watch from outside, listening to the governor describe how he learned to weld as a child because his father was an ironworker. Amaya listened as Kaine described how vocational education had gained a second-class status, its value "de-escalated" across the country, and how he expected that to change, especially with efforts such as those at schools such as the Career Center.

"I'm really just here to say, 'Keep up the good work,' " Kaine said.

Early last year, Kaine announced that the school was one of six picked to house the first Governor's Career and Technical Academies. The purpose of the academies is to build on existing programs and "align instruction in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with 21st-century workplace and postsecondary expectations," his office announced. Late last month, he and representatives of the National Governors Association, which provided the grants, were able to see how that effort was being translated, classroom to classroom.

They toured the school, peeking into rooms that bore little resemblance to the shop and home economics classes of the past.

In the child-care class, where a primary-colored gym dominates the middle of the room, students spend two days a week working with children and take mechanical babies home.

"It's really changed us a lot," said Victoria Cruz, 16. "I always wanted to be a social worker. But it makes me want to go further in my education."

In the physical therapy room, plastic, lifelike body parts are used to explain injuries such as sprained ankles. Teacher Sheila Napala said some of her students have gone on to doctorates in the subject. One of her current students, Elizabeth Delery, is interning with a doctor who specializes in tennis elbow. Delery, a junior at Arlington's Washington-Lee High School, said she got interested in physical therapy, enough to travel to the Career Center for an hour and a half each day, because she's "a klutz."

"I fall down a lot," the 17-year-old said, laughing.

Kevin Cooper, 18, who makes the trip from Yorktown High School, said his interest in physical therapy grew out of playing sports since preschool.