Bring back shop class
This was written by Marc Epstein, a history teacher at Jamaica High School in Queens, N.Y., for the past 15 years, and a former dean of students. His articles on school violence, curriculum, and testing, have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and he blogs for the Huffington Post. He also contributed to A Consumer's Guide To High School History Textbooks, edited by Diane Ravitch. Epstein earned a PhD in Japanese - American Diplomatic history. By Marc Epstein As student failures pile up, manual education might be poised for a comeback. When I started teaching history at Jamaica High School in the mid-nineties, the shops in the basement had already been closed for nearly 10 years. Eventually the shops were converted into classrooms, at no small expense, and were reserved for double periods of English instruction for students with reading levels well below average. No Child Left Behind required that
