Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Missouri Education Watchdog: Something Else That Needs To Be On The Table - Apprenticeships

Missouri Education Watchdog: Something Else That Needs To Be On The Table - Apprenticeships:


Something Else That Needs To Be On The Table - Apprenticeships

College and Career Readiness... college and career readiness. It's the new mantra of education reform. Everything public education does must answer the question of whether it addresses college or career readiness. If you examine what the reformers and the administration are talking about you realize that it is really only about the second goal. They believe college is also about career readiness, just more lucrative careers. So if that really is the goal, then anything that gets us to that end point should be on the table, including apprenticeships. But ask the education elite or the administration what they think of apprenticeships and the most you will likely get is lip service about how they can be good "for some people."

Intellectual Takeout said that apprenticeships today, "might be viewed as an undignified and outdated way to escape the college grind, while for others it might trigger a romanticized memory of reading Johnny Tremain in the fifth grade."

In the past they were embraced as the path to a career in a particular field, be it a craft occupation or trade, or  a