Monday, June 4, 2012

Why we need vocational education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why we need vocational education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:
Answer Sheet

Why we need vocational education

This was written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University. This was written for hisblog on Edutopia , and he also publishes a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal.
By Mark Phillips
I was hired by Norway’s Ministry of Education to train vocational education teachers some years ago . Having myself attended a comprehensive high school where vocational students were those who couldn’t make it academically it was eye opening to be in a country where vocational education had high prestige, was well funded, and included students who could have gone to medical school if that had been their preference. 
 I was reminded of this experience recently when Tony Wagner, the