Sorry about the title. This post isn’t going to live up to it. A friend of mine made an observation about education discourse that prompted a few thoughts I wanted to jot down. In recent years, there has been a fair amount of discourse talking up “the trades”* as a good alternative to college. The tone of the discourse often has at least the undercurrent of college being an inferior choice.
(*As I understand it, “the trades” refers to a job that requires some amount of skilled manual labor. But there’s probably an additional component because I’m not confident that all skilled manual labor is what people mean when they use the term. But, in any case, plumber, electrician, carpenter, and welder are examples.)
This isn’t an inherently bad take. College isn’t for everyone, it’s expensive, trade work can be lucrative, and it’s valuable work in its own right. On any number of occasions, I’ve mentioned the “No Time to Lose” report from the National Conference of State Legislatures on building a world class educational system. One of the features of such systems is a path for career and technical education. Singapore and Switzerland are cited as places with strong CTE programs.
But the Discourse isn’t really about that. With respect to one exchange where the opinion-haver said that we do a poor job of educating kids with “exceptional spatial abilities” and need programs for “those who think with their hands,” my friend observed that the solution for such kids was always focused on things like shop class and never art class or home economics.
Being a man and not especially well attuned to feminist thought, that blind spot had not stood out to me. But, now that she mentions it, of course this whole discussion has a strongly gendered component. It’s of a piece with what Real Men do and don’t do. “Real Men shower after work, not before.” Eggheads aren’t manly. Everything must be gendered and, it goes without saying, the masculine must be valued more than the feminine.
The people who say that all work has (or should have) dignity and the trades are valuable are, of course, correct. But, when the commentary goes beyond that and sneers at other kinds of work, something else is going on. Look at what kinds of work they are devaluing in the process to determine what the subtext is. And, as often as not, it seems as if there’s an effort to prioritize a certain kind of masculinity.
“My friend observed that the solution for such kids was always focused on things like shop class and never art class or home economics.”.
Art class is now computer graphics and home economics is now culinary arts and restaurant management.
My son went to Central Nine Career center and at the end of their sophomore year they sign up for the class they want.. If the class (welding, diesel repair, etc) has two many signed up then it is decided by grades. If they lose out in their first choice then the students have the chance to sign up for another class
They take the bus from their high school and have to be up an hour earlier then if they took classes at the high school. Classes are three hours then they take the bus back to the high school for three core classes.
Just a few ideas below, all it takes is money.
We could start students earlier then their Junior year, Teach the core classes at the Career Center. and pay the instructors better. Bigger areas for the classes that are in high demand.
Just a few ideas all it takes is money.
The nine high schools pay for the maintenance, of C9 and fork over half the money the state sends to the high school for each student.