As much as I dislike many of Stitt’s policies concerning public education, I can’t find what the big deal is about this one. I just answered a survey yesterday sent out by a company that does personality tests and one of the questions asked three different ways was do you believe education is about training for a career or more learning just to be learning. I selected the “strongly describes me” on the education is about training for a career. While I am a life long learner (that’s why I initially sought out political forums), the bottom line of my belief about education is that it is the best way out of poverty.
I have also encouraged many undecided kids to investigate the military as an option until they decide what to do in life, or to help get them out of a less than desirable family situation. I never paint it as an undesirable option but we do talk about the risks involved.
The whole idea behind this idea…and it is an idea at this time as no legislation has even been proposed…is to make schools more focused on getting kids ready for life. For instance, one of the thoughts is to require an extra year of financial literacy in high school. It needs to be taught then anyway. Right now in Oklahoma Financial Literacy is taught in 6th and 7th grades. Does anyone think learning about managing household income is important to the average 6th and 7th grader?
I’m teaching a class this year to 6 senior boys. It’s a filler class and the administration told me to teach what I wanted to teach. So far this year we have learned about purchasing or leasing vehicles, discussing the situations where there might be an advantage to do one or the other. During that unit we went to the parking lot and checked the oil, measured tread depth, checked the wear on the tires, changed a tire and even charged an air conditioner. Believe it or not 2 of my boys hadn’t even done that before.
We investigated house and land prices in our area and did a mock purchase or a house and land of their choosing. During that unit we learned about securing loans and created amortization schedules for payments. We talked about the advantages of renting as opposed to purchasing. We looked at some simple home repair jobs a person can do on his own.
We’re nearing the end of the unit I created in which we’re learning about jobs. Working for a salary, getting paid by the hour, getting paid a salary plus commission. We’ve talked about education requirements of different jobs as well as the dilemma of getting one’s foot in the door to gain needed experience to advance to better paying positions. When we return from Christmas break today we will start on resumes and learn about job interviews. The final for this will be them participating in a mock job interviews conducted by our Superintendent and School Counselor.
My point about this class is that while the math involved should be learned in the 6th or 7th grade, it means more and thus is more beneficial to these 6 boys than the blanket Financial Literacy course 4 or 5 years ago.
One last thing. One of the “worries” is that some kids can’t do the things Stitt proposes in his thinking out loud post. From the article: “Many note that children with learning or intellectual disabilities may not be suited to any of the three choices. Others feared that restricting graduates to college, military or technical programs would hinder artists or musicians seeking to join the workforce in their own way.” There have always been provisions in public education for the disabled and less intellectually inclined. To me these people are being disingenuous at best in their “concerns.” Also, not many are going to make a living as an artist or a musician. They still need to have the skills to make a living for themselves. They can pursue that while learning those skills. Maybe then they won’t be the guy playing the guitar on the street corner hoping someone drops a few dollars in their hat. And not everyone is going to be paid to duct tape a banana to a white wall.
Stitt gets a pass from me on this one. I haven’t said that often during the past 8 years.
Does anyone really think that career or vocational requirements for graduation are a bad idea? Bring back the basic skill training programs immediately if nothing else...Home Ec...Industrial Arts..require internships.... College prep isn't for everyone...and there are electives now that are just basically useless preparing our kids for the future...
