Some employers want return of vo-ed training

[xchrom]

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/28/10498304-some-employers-want-return-of-vo-ed-training

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum hit on a hot-button issue over the weekend when he called President Barack Obama "a snob" for his views on higher education. "He wants everybody in America to go to college," Santorum said.

The Tea Party may have loved the jab, but Santorum's comment touched on a real issue facing businesses that is rarely discussed in education policy debates: a lack of well-trained high-school graduates ready for the workforce.

Experts say the problem is the result of a trend that dates to the Reagan era: a well-intentioned push toward more college-prep at the expense of vocational and technical programs in high schools.

"We began to focus on book learning, and 'vocational' became a dirty word," said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Center of Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. I got a decent job prior to graduation from my HS drafting class.

When I was in school, there were;
- "office" classes
- nursing aide classes
- carpentry classes
- drafting classes
- a print shop
- metal shop
- wood shop
- auto body
- auto mechanics
- journalism
- horticulture

They've eliminated all these things and it hasn't measurably improved core knowledge apprehension, in fact it has arguably hurt it, particularly for boys.

[Fumesucker]

2. Everyone learns the same way..

And book learning is the only important learning there is..

Manipulating physical objects in the real world is *so* twentieth century.

[FarCenter]

3. A number of these are being taught at the local community college

In fact, vocational education seems to be a primary focus of the community college.

[wildeyed]

4. And not everyone WANTS a college education.

I like doing things hands on. I think visually and globally, not in the typical auditory/sequential manner. I hate traditional school. It is all sitting still in rows while someone goes "blah blah blah". I can't absorb that much at all. It has nothing to do with level of intelligence, it is the type of intelligence. By forcing all students to pursue four year academic degrees, were are not maximizing the potential of a large minority of students. And their skills can be just as valuable when they are trained and encouraged. I ended up starting my own business and am doing great, but vocational would have been a great option too.

[Whiskeytide]

5. Obama's quote was actually...

... to encourage kids to go to at least one year of higher education, community college, 4 year school, vocational or trade school... whatever. (I'm paraphrasing from memory). Santorum turned it into a frothy mixture of snobbery and then thoroughly double-spoke it to the intelligence level of a cinder block. You guys really have to watch The Daily Show.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. I'm convinced my husband is a genius

No, that's not just an adoring wife's bias. He thinks 3, 4 or 5 steps ahead of everything and anticipates problems I would never have considered and then develops plans to prevent or by-pass the problems. He credits his service for that but you just can't teach that sort of problem-solving, there has to be an innate quality.

Yet, he works like an animal repairing deisel machinery -- and he's totally happy doing it. He enlisted right out of high school but he could go to college if he wanted to and excel and whatever he studied. Yet, he's happy with what he does. I'm happy. We're happy.

I, on the other hand, took classes as an English major and ended-up as an office assistant. Since then I've had to grow to assume the responsibilities to help my boss serve as a project manager for commerical building projects.

No plan of battle ever survives first contact with the enemy, or so they say. I suppose there's no reason educational assumptions should fare any better.