Althouse: "Let’s make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on the path to a good job."

February 21, 2013

"Let’s make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on the path to a good job."

"Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges."

20 comments:

Jaske said...: The problem with American education is (few)design vs (many)build. The system is geared for teaching design.; 2/21/13, 6:38 PM
Dante said...: Excellent. I think part of that time out to be as a government subsidized internship with a qualified tradesman, if that's the path.; 2/21/13, 6:50 PM
Diogenes of Sinope said...: In one industry which I consult for they have US and German plants with essentially the same equipment making the same products. The difference is in Germany every machine operator is a qualified repair technician of some kind with educational training to support them while in their USA plants no machine operator does any maintenance or repair. Their German machine run much more efficiently, their German plants have 1/3 the number of maintenance and their USA costs are about 30 percent higher while paying lower real wages and benefits.; 2/21/13, 6:52 PM
edutcher said...: Better than a certificate for PC and putting a rubber on a banana.; 2/21/13, 6:57 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: What really matters is the Teacher's Union and the money laundering scheme between it and the democrat party.
Screw our kids. Screw common sense.

What really matters is that our kids turn out ot be good little communists.; 2/21/13, 7:03 PM
Sam L. said...: Diogenes, could that be due to union rules, here?; 2/21/13, 7:15 PM
kentuckyliz said...: There's a lot of tech prep and dual credit and bringing HS kids to the technical campus. This kind of stuff is going on. It's suffered under the college readiness fad pressure. I'm sure we're at the ripe moment to re-emphasize it.

Early college in the school or at the college campus is another hot trend. If the academically talented kids have college opportunities in high school, the technically/manually talented kids deserve the same.

I'm a big fan of CTE even though my background is more liberal arts. Actually I have been doing CTE part time for years now, just for fun and to learn better useful skills. I graduate with an AAS in General Occupational Technical Studies/Office Systems Technology Option and a couple of office diplomas and certificates this May.; 2/21/13, 8:02 PM
Oso Negro said...: The Germans test people to see who goes where. In the U.S., certain historically disadvantaged groups will perform poorly on said tests and squeak at where they end up.; 2/21/13, 8:03 PM
kentuckyliz said...: The new financial aid regulations (about maximum time frame) make it absolutely imperative that high school seniors spend some time job shadowing to really explore and make solid decisions about their education and career. There is less in the way of wiggle room for major changing than there used to be. Well, you can change majors and find yourself til the cows come home, but the finaid will run out before you find yourself.; 2/21/13, 8:04 PM
virgil xenophon said...: IIRC the German system has always been geared in this direction as far back as the 50s, so nothing new under the sun here. German (and European in general)
secondary education has ALWAYS been known as far, far, more rigorous than America's. By contrast our University system used to be just the opposite. The common joke in the 50s/60s about European Universities was that the only people found studying in the libraries late at night were American graduate students--the European undergrads were all out on the town..; 2/21/13, 8:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Bring back wood, metal, and auto shop. I was surprised at how many engineering students in college couldn't use simple tools, let alone weld or solder.; 2/21/13, 8:20 PM
Alex said...: bpm... watch the blood fly as clueless kids hack off fingers.; 2/21/13, 8:26 PM
Joe said...: End high school at 16.

Change a bachelor degree to a 3 or 2 year degree, but require a two year degree to go to university.

The US high school education system is more about worshiping teenage-hood and in distributing welfare than in education.

(In short, teenagers aren't special; we need to stop making them believe they are.); 2/21/13, 8:37 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Arlington County, VA had a free program to train masons that ran for years & years. They shut it down about 4-5 years ago. Why? No interest.

In the DC area now, there are almost no under 50 & non-union tradesmen who are not immigrants.

And these guys make decent money, too. We had a 40 ft long, 7 ft high at the maximum retaining wall done in brick. 10 days work, counting demolition = $17,500.; 2/21/13, 8:50 PM
JAL said...: @ Diogenes 6:52 -- In the US the unions wouldn't let the operator do the repair technician's job and vice versa.

"Right to work" works better.

Our local community technical college has an integrated high school tech degree wherein the kids come out with a HS diploma and an associates degree.; 2/22/13, 12:05 AM
JAL said...: Congrats to KentuckyLiz. You are a busy lady and hopefully healthy these days to be doing that.; 2/22/13, 12:08 AM
iowan2 said...: The premise of the post is, we in the US should make a govt goal of having our young'ns have at least the skills to get a job.

Here's a thought. Why dont the parents be responsible?

Here's another thought. The reason the parents dont care is because they have abdicated the most basic of parental responsibilities to the govt. Child care? learning colors, reading the comics, using a sewing machine, handsaw, change a tire?

The underlying reason?

Social Security.

How did mankind advance previous to Social Security?

The answer is, previous to Social Security a mans retirement fund was his children. The more kids you had and the more skills, training, education, along with charecter traits, like work ethic, morals, honor, honesty, humility, those offspring had, the better your retirement years.

That has all been replaced by govt.

Better or worse?; 2/22/13, 6:22 AM
AllenS said...: You couldn't structure education in this country like Germany. After the program went through the American PC bullshit, you'd have courses like African American Machine Operator Studies programs, or Hispanic-Ameriasian-Native American-Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered
Qualified Repair Technician Studies.; 2/22/13, 7:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Diogenes, could that be due to union rules, here?

Hardly, Germany is much more heavily unionized than this country. In fact in large companies, half the board of directors are elected by the employees (a third in smaller companies).; 2/22/13, 9:20 AM
Andy Freeman said...: >> Diogenes, could that be due to union rules, here?

> Hardly, Germany is much more heavily unionized than this country.

Isn't that cute, Freder2 thinks that German unions are just like US unions.; 2/22/13, 1:24 PM