Education Reform a la the Happy Carpenter

When you hear or read about education reform, for at least the last twelve years, you hear from a small list of proposed topics. The positions on the topics are entirely predictable if you know who’s talking. They are:
1. School choice
2. Higherteacherpayandsmallerclasssize (usually pronounced as one word)
3. Diversity (which is a code word for the union position de jour)
4. Standardized testing (sometimes for students, sometimes for teachers)

And that’s about it.
Lately we’ve been talking about out-sourcing and what it would take to turn that around to IN-sourcing. Most commenters, including me, have focused on industrial, trade, tort, monetary, and tax policies. I’d like to add EDUCATION to the mix.

Think about it. One way to prevent out-sourcing and to encourage in-sourcing is to increase the productivity of American workers. Indeed, productivity has been growing at an astounding rate. Can it grow at that rate forever?
It seems to me that a great deal of effort and treasure is wasted on preparing – or pretending to prepare – all students for college. We are just so egalitarian, and isn’t it just so diverse of us to treat all students exactly the same? Here would be a good time to step back and take a Dole look at how we do things.
I propose we bring back vocational schools in a serious way. If I had my druthers we would do it spontaneously through a total school choice voucher method, but that is not necessary. We pretty much know by the beginning of middle school who is going to perform well and at what. We can with fair reliability identify those students who will most benefit by a college preparation curriculum, and those who will not. Let’s stop discriminating against those who will not and help set their feet on a path best suited for them.
Naturally, any student, by which I mean his or her parents, could choose the college prep curriculum despite any contraindicative test scores, and vice versa. Coercion is not the point. But if kids could come out of high school – and why must that be no sooner than age 18? – with a highly developed non-trivial skill, wouldn’t that be good? Of course it would. Those who denigrate the skills of the blue collar man have mostly never done the work, at least not beyond a summer as a lowest-rung laborer. I’m a carpenter, and a general contractor, and I can tell you that those jobs are not undemanding. They deserve a lot more respect than they get.
If employers could find young people who did not need to be trained to weld, to assemble, to do the thousands of jobs we need done, they would hire them. Most of my friends are small businessmen, and one of the biggest challenges we face is finding qualified workers. Unions used to serve a useful function here, but they got so bogged down in expensive BS that they never caught on across the sun belt, and their numbers are shrinking accordingly. Note that a major union bastion is the teachers’ union. But I digress…
Be honest. How much trig did you use last week? How much chemistry? When was the last time anyone asked you to diagram a sentence? When was the last time you remembered the Pythagorean theorem? Cimminy, I can’t even remember how to spell it, and I work in a field where math is not unknown. Sure, we have good reasons for giving many kids a broad liberal education, but for many hundreds of thousands we are wasting a LOT of their time at GREAT cost to them and to ourselves.
We can do better.
I’d love to see this added to the national debate on education. Pass it on.

Comments

[pedro]

PS - if this topic interests you, you could do worse than visit http://www.joannejacobs.com/ from time to time.

[pedro]

speaking of which, I just say THIS on her site:

"The 82 percent drop-out rate

The overall drop-out rate is 82 percent, writes Ronald Wolk in Teacher Magazine.

For every 100 students who enter 9th grade, 67 graduate from high school; 38 of these enter college; 26 are still enrolled after their sophomore year; and only 18 graduate with either an associate or bachelor's degree within six years.
Without a degree or vocational training, most of the drop-outs aren't well-prepared to earn a decent living."

I guess great minds think alike :-)

[Mighty Mo]

I don't think that picture is going to sell IT.Those are staggering statistics. Are they nationwide or just Florida? Let's bring back the vocational schools. Think how much happier some of those students would feel in a vocational school. And they would have something, once they were out of school. There might be fewer disruptions in regular classrooms, also. Does anyone have a plan to get around the teacher's union? They have shown how all-powerful they are.

[pedro]

Welcome to the comment section Mighty Mo.
Yes, a lot of them would be happier, not just while they were in school but for years after they graduated, if not their whole life.

[David Foster]

You might be interested in my post on "the supresssion of shop"

http://photoncourier.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_photoncourier_archive.html#105854428715183453

[Bone]

They have a system similar to what you propose in Germany. According to a exchange student from Germany who lived with me for a while when I was in high school.
At middle school age children are directed onto one of two tracts. Die Raulerschuer which is a school that prepares them for factory work or skilled labor (ie plummers, electricans, etc) and of course craftsman such as carpenters, cabinet makers, etc. Or Das Gymnasium which is you basic college prep for European universities.
According to my friend this system works very well for the German people. However, we know how little the American people like being guided by the G even if it appears to be for our own good...
Something to mull over...

[pedro]

Photoncourier, I read your link and send back a hearty "Roger that!"
Bone, bad enough the Deutsch do it that way, but the cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys do it the same way.
An important difference we'd need & demand in America would be making it a free choice, either way, and revokable at any time. It can't be a class thing, that would never be accepted here, but it could be a choice thing. The educrats are big on *choice*, are they not?

[Wacky Hermit]

Why should vocational training be limited to those who aren't interested in academics? My sisters and I are all "cross-trained" in a non-academic trade, as well as having college degrees. My parents insisted on it, just in case we didn't complete college or were unable to get jobs in our academic field. I think everyone should learn a trade so that everyone can do something that's of practical use to society.

I still can't believe people pay me good money to just teach them mathematics. I can't help but think that one of these days, the gravy train's last boxcar will pass... but when it does, I'll be ready.

[Frank Borger]

You can't remember the pythagorean theorem?

Ever used the 3 4 5 rule to use a tape measure to set up a right angle???

[Wacky Hermit]

Frank, using a single instance of the Pythagorean Theorem is not the same as understanding the applicability of the general theorem.

[Pedro]

My bad. I meant the quadratic equation. I use 3-4-5 all the time, of course.

[Dwaine Falls]

I graduated from a vocational school in the carpentry program and went on to earn degrees in: AAS-Drafting & Design, AAS-Construction Technology, BS-Civil Engineering, BS-Surveying and MS-Engineering Management.

I have found the best engineers have a vocational backgrounds.

[Terrie]

I wholeheartedly agree that vocational training and education are every bit as valuable -- and perhaps more so -- than college-prep work. After all, knowledge alone is good for cocktail party banter, while knowledge applied is the definition of skill. I know too many knowledgeable people with no skills. And, having worked most of my career in the high-tech industry, the last three CEOs for which I've worked -- and the BEST ones -- never went to college. But boy did they have vocational skills and magical thinking and guts and tenacity on their side. And they got to order my multi-degree Ivy-League pedigree around. When my 15 year-old son tells me how useless his high school curriculum is, I cannot honestly disagree, and I DO know how to diagram a sentence and I DO know the Pythagorean Theorum. After all, I was busy memorizing everything to get A's while my smarter counterparts were obviously "learning a vocation" by banging out code and building crazy machines in their garages. And now, should they ever need a sentence diagrammed, they can tell me to do it for them by Friday at noon, because I work for them. I get it now. Maybe if the people who run our educational system ever had a job driving commerce, they would get it too. Our economy, philosophies, and social structures are advanced by pioneers and visionaries in all walks of life, and that has very little to do with what one learns in college.

[Air Max Shoes]

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[GHD Hair Stylers]

by Friday at noon, because I work for them. I get it now. Maybe if the people who run our educational system ever had a job driving commerce, they would get it too. Our economy, philosophies, and