It's Not About the Money. It's About the Kids. Part 3

Americans have always valued education as the sure road to progress. Lately, however, it seems that some of us may have lost our way.           

               

I was having coffee with a retired teacher yesterday, and we were commiserating about what we consider to be a steady decline in school performance.

She mentioned the focus of current high school programming on preparing everyone for college. We agreed that not everyone needs to or even wants to go to college, as evidenced by the numbers of students who drop out after one year or those who take five or six years to graduate.

We also discussed the data in recent reports demonstrating that there are more job opportunities in the service industries than there are for college graduates.

All of which led us to the elimination over time of the hands-on courses available to the previous generation of students such as introductory courses that led to pursuing certificate programs at the Career & Technical School, business courses that trained accountants, child development classes for future parents, and the greenhouse for budding horticulturists. Where had they gone? 

The answer was that they had disappeared as the enrollment had declined even though students’ interests still varied widely from the potential computer wizard to the plumber who replaces the leaky faucet.

We agreed that a community needs a full range of talent, and promoting one at the expense of another is self-defeating.