Should High Schools Be Turned Into Trade Schools?

[erpowers]

Should America institute a program where K-8 is the period where kids learn the basics of reading, writing, math, science, history, and geography and let 9-12 be the years where kids pick a trade and learn that trade? It seems that if kids would get trades in high school they could leave high school with the ability to get a middle class job. I am not in any way, shape, or form against kids going to college; I just think it might be good for kids to get a trade and I do not see how getting a trade would prevent a kids from being able to go to college.

With the exception of high level math like Algebra and Calculus, do kids learn anything different in 9-12 than they learned in K-8? Would it be that bad to let kids get trades in high school and then if they want, let them go on to college? How would getting a trade in high school prevent a kid from being able to go to college?

Also should people as young as 15 be allowed to go to college? In some states high school students are allowed to attend high school and community college at the same time. For those kids who would not want to go to high school if it were turned into a trade school, why not let them attempt to go to college? Would it really hurt them or the country that much to let them attend college?

[madrchsod]

1. i had trade classes when i went to high school.

if one was an excellent student in a trade you were pretty much assured a good paying trade job upon graduating. of course when i went to high school the united states still owned the machines and tools of production and construction.

the germans have used this approach for years and look at what they have accomplished.....

[Tikki]

14. My husband was one of those excellent students in High School class and it guaranteed him a job.

Last edited Mon Jan 6, 2014, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)

He went into aerospace tool-building on the recommendation of two teachers.

Actually, even after college, he worked in that field until he retired after 30 years.

In between the days after HS graduation and his 30 year tool developers job he was drafted into the Army,
went to college, hired as a tool builder, laid off twice and recalled, company moved twice to different
So Cal locations…he commuted daily and he retired at age 55.

Neither of our sons showed any interest in a trade's career.

Personally, I respect the hard earning tradespeople as much or more than any job. My husband's work
was like a work of art..We see it now, after retirement, in the furniture he has built and renovations completed on our properties.

Answer to the OP question…YES, maybe some High Schools should be Trade Schools…but not all.

Tikki

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Yep. High schools have largely gotten out of this business.

Employers have also stop hiring new high school grads to learn the trade through OJT. These days, students are steered to community colleges and private, for profit trade schools instead. It's a huge disservice to kids.

[PowerToThePeople]

2. No.

[dogman]

3. Why would it take 4 years to learn to run a cash register or watch a cooking timer?

Where are these trades you write about?

[ret5hd]

7. electrician, plumber, welder, machinist, auto mechanic, heavy diesel mechanic, hvac, carpenter...

need I go on?

All those are jobs that require training and intelligence, and can't be sent overseas.

[dogman]

12. Go on, please.

The local schools here have discontinued most of those programs because there is such limited demand for them. I am a retired electrician. I went through an apprenticeship that taught me the trade. The industry depends on apprenticeship both as a source of training and a source of cheap labor. Very few high school grads make it in the trade they are trained for. I was forced to retire early because of the scarcity of work. Willingness to work cheap is more important to employers than education or experience.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Nope

[bonzaga]

5. If everybody gets into trades, their prices go down

And then you're back to square one. The purpose of education is to create well rounded critical thinkers capable of problem solving and adapting. You can't have everyone doing manual labor in the same way you can't have everyone being a brain surgeon.

[jmowreader]

16. Before Reagan it was

Now the purpose of education is to learn exactly what's on those damn standardized tests, and to regurgitate it on demand so the school doesn't get closed.

As for learning to be a well-rounded critical thinker...as Chef said on an old South Park, there's a time and a place for everything and it's called college.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. No. 12 years of basic education is barely adequate now. Our High school graduates are already

typically 4 years behind their foreign contemporaries. Hell, most of our kids are graduating without ever having learned how to learn.

OTOH we do need to make more options available for the kids that don't want or are not well-suited for college.

[Lost_Count]

8. I like the German system...

Kids get funnelled off into areas that they actually can use...

High performers go to gymnasium and virtually all are college bound. High academic focus... languages, science etc.. etc..

Middle performers who don't need a traditional college education can get a more moderate and focused education

Those who would do best with a trade go and actually learn that trade. What a shocking idea...!

Those are the broad strokes but it seems to work well. I hear they are dumping it soon though due to too many hurt feelings about who gets put in which school and soon they can be just as below average as we are!

[hunter]

13. I don't like it. It used to be that way in the U.S.A. and it tended to be racist or classist.

My father-in-law's parents were Mexican immigrants working in the canneries. In high school the counselors and teachers directed my father-in-law to the trades. Nobody recognized his talents until he graduated from high school and joined the Navy. The Navy tested him, trained him, and put him to work as a medic.

After he was discharged he was accepted to college under the G.I. bill and graduated with a biology degree. He went on to get his masters and several related certifications and licenses. His three careers were all related to his experiences as a Navy medic and his university science education.

My father-in-law is retired now, but he never worked in the trades his high school tried to push him into.

In the same city my dad, who is white, who's dad was an engineer, there was never any question in high school that he was on the college track.

I quit high school. So did one of my siblings. (There are a few of us.) Oddly it's me and my sibling who quit high school who have the university degrees. My other siblings, the "college track" high school graduates, work in the trades.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. It is a good idea, pretty badly executed, but I can see appealing it is to the American mindset.

The basic idea and even the developed system are good, where it falls apart is the authoritarian implementation. The idea that we can predict performance and aptitude from a series of tests has been shown to little more than wishful thinking for a very long time.

Previous examples of this type of system have been have been rife with prejudices and manipulation producing the kind of results we've some to expect.

[hunter]

9. No.

They should include trades education.

And adult education at the high school level ought to be free and very easily accessible for everyone -- with trades education for liberal arts graduates, and liberal arts education for trades graduates.

Teenagers don't always have the experience to choose the best path for themselves. If a kid who took auto classes in high school works in an auto shop and decides to be a biologist that path should still be open. Likewise for a biologist who decides they'd rather work on cars.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Your question is loaded.

It should be a place where kids can learn enough about a wide enough variety of things that they can plan a successful future.

That includes vocational education, life skills education and college preparatory education.

Vocational education should play a very large role in High School, but it's not the whole purpose.

[reformist2]

11. Give them a wider range of paths - it's not like any of them guarantee a job, anyway.

I actually don't like this tendency to look at school as something of a training camp for the Future Workers of America. It's purpose should be teaching what the community and country think is important and valuable, whether or not it leads to a lucrative career.

[One_Life_To_Give]

15. For some yes, others no.

We are not all so monolithic that schools should be made one or the other. Instead we should focus on developing the potential in each child. Some should be Welders, Iron Workers, Tool and Die makers etc. Others should attend the Ivory Halls as their talents are better suited there.

[LibertyLover]

19. No, especially not for welding

My stepson-in-law is a welder and he couldn't support his wife and family on just the salary from his job. From what he says, welding is not what it once was when it comes to trades to learn. He wishes now that he had done something else, but feels at his age it's too late to start over and learn a new trade. Of course, with the number of times his shop has been put on unpaid hiatus, had he started learning something new, he'd be there by now.

[RebelOne]

20. I went to a trade school in Miami.

I think all students should go to trade school. I learned basic office skills, which helped me immensely because I quit school when I was 16 as I had eloped to Georgia and got married. If I had not attended a trade school, I would never have been able to find a decent job after my divorce 9 years later. I had many clerical jobs before I joined the publishing world and became a copy editor for a very large publishing company and worked there for 13 years before retiring.

That is not bad for someone who quit school in the 11th grade. I can thank a trade school for my success.