"axolotl" wrote in message
...
On 6/19/2010 10:32 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:

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.


This can be muddied further. The current trend, where you and I live, is
to have vocational schools that support a particular college major.
The regular high schools assume everyone will go to some college. A
college degree is considered the starting point for any career. For
example, we have a new admin assistant at work; pretty much a
receptionist. BA in English as the cost of entry. What she makes would
cover the rent on a nice apartment a round here. There are a lot of
English and communication grads to choose from. The schools keep pushing
them out.
If your high school age kid has a glimmer of what they would like to do
when they grow up, he or she will probably head for the magnet schools
that now make up the larger part of the vocational school system. My kids
went to (different) Vo-Tech schools- one for engineering and the other for
communications (the closest thing to Theater that was available).
No music. No art(per se). No sports.
The magnet schools have characteristics of the vocational schools of old-
hands on training with what the trade demands. The engineers design and
write technical papers; the Comm kids produce TV programs, the biotech
kids pull apart DNA and the marine biology kids cut up fish. The kids then
go on to college.
My observation is that the kids that go to the magnet schools are more
involved in the arts that the kids that attend the "liberal arts" high
schools. It's in the kid.

Kevin Gallimore


I haven't looked into the magnet schools and I know little about them. The
students who attend them, from reports, seem to be very involved in their
studies, which is a very appealing thing.

The curriculum at the Middlesex County Vo-tech system seems to agree with
what you're saying -- they're assuming that many of those kids will go on to
college to pursue higher learning in technical fields. I've been caught up
in special education lately, because of my wife's work, so I haven't kept up
with some of the other developments.

--
Ed Huntress