"Andrew VK3BFA" wrote in message
...
On Jun 18, 11:31 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
"Andrew VK3BFA" wrote in message

snip

OK, OK,...have figured it out now. Forgot where you were. Here in OZ,
the education system is run by each state, so there is a unified
curriculum in each state. All different, of course, between states.
So, when I went to school, and before they really started stuffing
around the education system, we had 2 streams - high school and tech
school. You wanna be a Rocket Scientist, go to high school. You wanna
be a plumber? - go to tech. Sorted out by academic ability in "exams"
It was factory fodder, thats all.

We never had much of that. It was more a matter of choice, although
counselors in the old days would "encourage" kids to go one way or the
other. But in most places the shop program consisted only of a few classes.

Most school shops had the usual
machine tools, so by the time they finished, they had a basic
knowledge of how NOT to wreck expensive machines and tooling, so were
likely to get an apprenticeship.

You lot, I think, with your penchant for the rights of the individual
have local education boards, run by the citizenry(?) so any rational
analysis, or organisation of resources, would be nigh on impossible.
As would agreement between groups on how to organise.....anything.....

It's mixed. We have state-by-state requirements, which set the limits of the
curriculum. Now, we have federal requirements as well, which determine
whether a particular school district gets more or less federal money.
Federal requirements are mostly based on student-performance goals set for
those "basic" subjects I discussed, and nationwide tests to measure results.
This is a highly controversial subject in US education.

Local boards also can have a big influence on the curriculum. Some states
fund schools mostly through state-wide taxes; others, like mine, base
funding on local property taxes. Local taxpayers in those states vote and
pay for most of the school funding, so if the local voters want shops, they
can have shops. Usually they don't these days.

So, given that you had thousands of articles on hundreds(?) of school
systems, your analysis that you chose must be correct. (After all, no
point in picking ones that dont support your argument)
I humbly concede defeat.

g This isn't a battle. It's an attempt to clarify the facts. In this case,
it's just a matter of reading the historical record. And the historical
record of how "industrial arts" and vocational education evolved in the US
is not at all ambiguous. However, it was, as I said, two-tracked.

--
Ed Huntress