James Wilson believes that it is harmful to youth to expect all to meet the same rigorous academic standards. Some will excel in career and technical education or other fields.
He writes:
“The imposition of the University of California A-G entrance requirements on all high school students is inappropriate and extremely harmful. The UC system was constructed to be a system of elite universities for the top ten percent highest achieving California high school students. When you add out of state and international students, the proportion of California youth in UC schools is even smaller. The idea of the UC A-G entrance requirements is to prepare elite high school students for the rigorous coursework in the UC schools. These very difficult courses were never meant for all high school students. The requiring of these courses for all high school students is a perversion of the intention of the UC universities.
“Someone got the idea that if you require all high school students to take these extremely difficult courses, all students will raise their intelligence, effort, and overcome all backgrounds to be able to master these courses and enter a UC university. This is so patently absurd that it is hard to believe anyone would take the idea seriously…
“Requiring A-G high school courses flies in the face of science and logic. However, this is much worse than an unjustified policy. This policy puts the seventy percent of students who will never graduate from any college in a terrible situation. They are forced into taking difficult courses in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Chemistry, and Biology. These courses have little use in society beyond college preparation. The seventy percent who will never go on to graduate from any college are forced to attempt to master these classes, but they cannot. The high schools do everything they can to make this impossible situation work. They water down the curriculum in these courses with no discernable standards and count a “D” grade as passing, but this is just window dressing.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I guess I agree with this post. The other extreme, of course, would be if public schools dumbed down their offerings such as History, Art and Geography, assuming the students would be headed for technical jobs only.
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I betcha a dollar that Bill Gates has never changed a tire, and doesn’t know how to.
I have friends who are brothers. One is a surgeon, the other is a carpenter – 2 sides of the same coin? Also, neighbors whose eldest daughter just finished medical school, while the younger is a hair stylist. Both necessary jobs, I’d say.
I don’t know how smart, for instance, Mariah Carey is, but she is talented enough to have made a successful career with her vocal abilities; meanwhile, her sister reportedly is a drug addict who lives on the streets. Why the difference despite the genes and the same upbringing? How many star athletes are not stellar students? The ability to earn doesn’t always match up with how much education and/or smarts a person has. The ability for the 1%ers to scam the poor though, that is a true talent.
Not only should all students not be held to the same requirements standards as elite private school students, its hard for underfunded public schools in impoverished neighborhoods to compete with private schools, and I don’t mean religious schools. Also, calling charter schools “Academies” and students “Scholars” in a no-excuses charter in an impoverished neighborhood doesn’t make it an Academy nor make the children scholars. They can massage the statistics all they want, but a starting class of 100, and a graduating class of 25 is not a Success. Punishing little kids for being born into poverty is malicious and sick; making money on punishing them is just the little perk that the 1%ers enjoy – they get to “put them in their place” while turning a profit. For them, its a win-win.
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Wilson succumbs to the damaging and narrow binary of “smart and not-so-smart.” While he doesn’t explicitly say so, he tacitly accepts the idea that the ability or inclination to take these kinds of courses are the currency of intelligence or success. They aren’t.
The problem is not forcing some students to take these kinds of courses when they are not able. The problem is accepting that these are the courses that matter and then open or close opportunity based on this narrow pinch point.
Kids are intelligent in remarkable ways that are ultimately more important to satisfaction and success than these A-G entrance requirements. They are not even the best experiences for the students who are most capable of doing well in them. The elite college bound student would learn more from auto mechanics than from Pre-Calculus. They would benefit more from a field trip to the Badlands than from AP History.
Wilson indeed defined a problem, but not the one he intended.
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This seems to be so obvious. Teachers should be demanding this.
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Dr ravitch
Here’s my issue with this and articles like it…which kids do you think need the consumer math or career and technical ed? I bet that Wilson would argue that those of color or lower income kids need these courses…this leads to tracking that we had in the 50s and 60 and we’ll still today
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Jlsteach,
You are right to be concerned about tracking low-income kids and kids of color into non-college tracks.
It is also right to worry about forcing all students into the same mold.
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Ok. So yes there should be multiple tracks. However I believe that the increase in expectations was done mainly to combat tracking that you say isn’t right..,
So what’s the solution? Maybe various tracks. My issue is why is it that he argues kids never use chemistry or algebra…so what do you consider to be the basics that kids should have after leaving high school? And how do you avoid wiksons proposal leading back to tracking based on race or social class??
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Privatization enthusiasts who call themselves reformers want young people who struggle to complete A-G requirements to have to take cyber classes. (Data!) If you don’t take your “credit recovery” cyber classes, you do NOT get to graduate from high school. We have a privatized prison system for you instead. You can take your cyber classes there. You can call that your Cyber Civil Rights.
The argument that people of color and/or economic struggle need to be helped off of the high school diploma track is the same as all the other conservative arguments: unemployed people need to be helped (forced) off welfare, veterans need to be helped (denied) from receiving benefits, workers need to be helped to stop organizing for higher wages so they can have the “right to work”, etc.
As with most issues in education, what classes you take in high school should be your decision, made with the assistance of guidance counselors, teachers, and family members who know you and care about you, not people who know and care about the NASDAQ.
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So true, but that requires the schools to offer a number of electives and/or alternative Major’s, such as in the arts or vocational fields. Hard to do with budget cuts which eliminate all the “extras”.
After all, those public school students need to focus on the 3Rs, not all that other “fancy” stuff. Who wants to pay for that? Those sissy programs are for “them” private school kids.
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It wasn’t a problem when I was a student. But back then, we weren’t wasting money on annual standardized tests on tablet computers, on tablet computers and other electronic gadgets and on charter executive salaries. I took Spanish and varsity athletics; my teammates took shop and varsity athletics.
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So…I can agree with you partially, but as so often folks who aim to make a decent argument combine too many things. First I think that there are some positives to using computers – it depends on how they are used whether they are worth the cost. As for inflated charter school head salaries – why bring that in. Let’s focus on costs in regular public schools…and yes there was testing back in the day (maybe not as often but I know I had testing and I’m in my early 40s)…
I think many of us can agree things need to be different – I just don’t think lowering expectations is the way to do it
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AGREE with Diane.
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Okay, some tech has its place. I was just lamenting how much our site, district, and state budgets have been reduced to pay for unfunded federal testing mandates and the loss of per pupil funding when students attend schools run by private contractors instead of public schools. It’s undeniably lamentable. The fact remains that forcing everyone to take A through G classes is like forcing wounded veterans to get a job the day they come home. There has to be something for high schoolers other than “go to UCLA or die.”
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So no one is forcing them to have to attend UCLA or specific schools – that being said I do not see how lowering expectations for students will improve their lives. Nor has anyone who seems to approve of Wilson’s argument shared with me one way that they can assure that students of color will not be tracked into non college classes
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Then we will have to agree to disagree. I do not think forcing people to take the highest level classes (or test “proficient”) is the right way to help them — small steps forward for young people, not miracle giant leaps of faith — and am a bit chagrined to see the “higher expectations” line that Bush used to accompany the NCLB cited by someone whose opinions I have valued and agreed with as much as yours, jlsteach. Next, we’ll be calling public education broken or outdated, the cause of a nation at risk. Then, we’ll be blaming teachers instead of trusting them. Nope, we just disagree this time.
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Thanks LeftCoastTeacher…I should maybe modify my response. I do agree with that students should have different paths like arts, etc. I also think we may have a different opinion of why high level clssses are – I don’t see algebra I or chemistry as super high level
I will say that I do agree with you that the it’s not enough to say high standards alone – there needs to be other supports
LeftCoastTeacher I do wonder about your thoughts on how to avoid tracking…that’s what worries me the most
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Thank YOU. Tracking must be eliminated! Yes. I think the way to do it is stop the creep of tracking into middle and even elementary schools (and especially with school “choice”). By high school, hopefully everyone has received a well rounded enough education to make some educated choices. My experience here in the big city has been that big high schools offer enough choices to preclude counselors from forcing students into tracks they and their families don’t want. Will that eliminate inequality? No, but it’s better than forcing students into the wrong track because, “high expectations”.
I teach middle school. Fighting tracking experiments as early the 6th grade middle school level has become a tragic, political, dangerous, intensive, annual fight with reformy administrations, and has been for the last eleven years. Before high school, there should be no tracks. In high school, your track should be your decision.
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But what about this:
The district I taught in for thirty years did away with tracking in the early 1990s. Before the end of tracking, there were several levels of English and students were scheduled into an English class based on their literacy level: basic, grade level, college prep.
After the end of tracking, every English class except Honors and Advanced Placement mixed students with different literacy levels and all the students worked out of a grade level texbook. That was when all English classes became college prep.
That resulted in reading levels from 2nd grade to college level in the same room all working out of the same grade level textbook. Imagine a reader at 2nd-grade level who hates reading working out of a 10th grade English text.
The theory was that the children with higher reading levels would help the children with lower reading levels, but that didn’t work out very well since the higher level readers often resented having to help someone that read way below their level. And too many of the low readers hated reading and attempted to get the higher level readers to do their work for them.
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Lloyd it’s called differentiation – it’s not easy but it can be done.
Look I agree that there can be some positives for tracking – easier to offer supports when one class is struggling, etc. that being said no o e yet has shared any solution on how we would avoid tracking due to race/socio-economic status…
In my daughters second grade class there were students that struggled to read and do math. She was not one of them. In the second week her class her teacher gave her a notebook of challenge problems to do when she was done..
I also note that one of the things that some elementary classrooms seem to do well is pulling kids together in small group discussions and small group focus (think kids in reading groups)…to me no reason that can’t be done in high school classes where kids can easily move levels
The problem in my mind with tracking is that – particularly in HS – there is often little opportunity to move from one track to another – even if a student shows improvement
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I’m an English teacher. Algebra and chemistry are vile. Vile I tell you! I had to study my linguistic minded butt off to get decent grades in those algorithm-centered honors and AP courses when I was in school. Not everything is easy for everyone.
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On the other hand, the only courses I got C’s I. for high school were English. That being said when I went to college I began writing for the student newspaper and realized that writing could be a logical process like math. Now I enjoy writing (more so academic papers but I
Dometimes miss the rush of journalism). I am also grateful that I was not closed out of the opportunity to join the newspaper staff even though I didn’t have strong English grades – that I had multiple paths to take
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Yes! Test scores and grades shouldn’t stop you from taking classes or extracurriculars that interest you. I’m very glad you had the opportunity.
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Agree that differentiation works. NOT “personalized learning”, but actual differentiation works on so many levels for all levels.
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Differentiation is wonderful, but now we still have Common Core and close reading and one size fits all. We also stuff kids into AP classes, whether that’s a good fit or not, so the school can get a higher rating.
Don’t forget – it’s not about what’s best for our children, instead it’s a numbers game (and the system is rigged).
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I had a student (a “hypothetical” student, since this is the internet) who was brilliant, but on Christmas, her father left her, and her mother died shortly thereafter. She almost failed my class. It took a lot to help her to pass. She still got a low grade. Next year, she should be able to take whatever classes she and her aunt think she should take. No one should force her into a remedial class because of her past. And if she’s not ready for honors classes next year, that’s up to her too.
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I agree that some tracking may be harmful. My diverse school district got many more minority students into advanced classes by running a summer boot camp to help students prepare for more rigorous academic work. In the fall they entered the Regents track. Even if a student failed, he/she could make up the work in summer school. The whole point was that the school was encouraging minority students to aim higher.
I also taught ESL in the high school in the ’70s when the district had the typical tracking. While most of my ESL students were under prepared, they were all given general math. I had a couple of very bright, well educated Haitian students. Luckily, the head of guidance allowed me to get them into algebra because these students were definitely college material. The head of the math department balked at first. When he saw what these students could do, he was more willing to accept them. The best systems consider students as individuals, and try to find the most appropriate placement for young people. It is important to give students maximum opportunity.
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Actually, all students need a course in life skills – balancing a check book, making out a budget, writing a check, figuring out the tip, calculating which item is the better deal, and yes, even determining their individual strengths so they can choose an appropriate career path. You know, common sense, every day stuff they will use for the rest of their lives.
Not everything they learn in those AP classes will be useful beyond the college credit they may or may not receive, and then only if they plan on pursuing higher education.
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So…that’s all they need. Just one class, say in grade 9…and then let kids go off on their own ?
You know I don’t know the ages of folks in these postings but my guess is they are a bit older. There is nothing wrong with this, but I sort of feel a lot like “back in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow to school, all up hill” and we liked it.
I am also going to guess that there are certain folks represented on this blog. I’ll confess – I’m a white upper middle class college graduate with lots of degrees. Wondering if there is anyone who would write and say “I wish i had had the opportunities to pursue a path in medicine or computer science but I wasn’t strong enough in math or science in elementary school…”
Lloyd – we appreciate your service but I believe you posted the same thing in a similar blog post about schools requiring students to take algebra (I’ll admit it too – I raised the same questions about tracking)
Too me lowering expectations isn’t a solution but will only lead to tracking – where certain students do not get access to things. Why do I confidently say that? Well who would have thought after the days of MLK and the civil rights movements of the 1960s we would be seeing and talking about black young men being shot at point blank range and then their shooters being acquitted?? While our society had made lots of progress we still have way more to go…one of the amazing things to me about this nations education system is how many more folks have access to educational opportunities when compared to other nations. In some places one major exam in 8th grade can determine ones fate for life (and potentially the fate of future generations). Not here in the US. Here someone can literally walk across the border (legally or not) and have the chance to be in a school. Now should that person be expected to pass a given test because of their age? No. And should schools who take in more of these immigrants be held to the same expectations as a school with 90% white in an affluent neighborhood? No. But why lower the standards?
Also, am wondering Lloyd and others – do you drive a car? Or fly in an airplane? Because yes folks managed to get by without those things back then.
I will end this diatribe with one thing I do agree with – thoss that want policies like having students take algebra or chemistry in HS as requirements for college need to do a better job (way better job) with supports. That to me should be the focus.
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jlsteach- I loved your response
AND yes – Back in the day (1972) when we took a Regents Exam – the score you got was the score you got – it wasn’t “weighted”.
My grand daughter passed her first Regents (Earth Science) with a score of 74. That doesn’t mean she got 74% of the answers correct – itt means she got a little over half of them right. However, for her that was like me getting a 95.
And we liked it!
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What is all this talk about honors and AP courses? Why would you take AP algebra or chemistry if you hated those subjects LeftCoastTeacher? I went to a high school that did tracking. As with everything in life, some people were better at some subjects than others. Some people went off to college, and some people went to work. All these years later, I find the qualities I admire most in other people have nothing to do with their earning potential or their academic credentials. That being said most people regardless of their path could expect to be able to feed themselves. Our education system wasn’t broken and at it’s core isn’t now. The powers that be are trying to substitute individual choice for common good.
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My 9th grade son is in a course like this right now. The District started it a couple of years ago. Besides stuff like you mention, they learn how to make a consumer complaint, what jobs are out there, what types of schooling they need for particular jobs, how to present themselves in job interviews, etc.
He says it is one of the most useful classes he has ever had, but wishes it was later in high school when he could really use the info he has learned. But our school has a 40% drop out rate, so I suspect part of its role is to keep kids focused on obtaining the diploma but showing them why they need it.
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Our last PD day of the year falls on what’s called “Chancellors Day” (which used to be “Brooklyn/Queens Day”…ahh the old days).
A very large chunk of this year’s Chancellors Day was spent becoming familiar with the new push towards “Transition”.
After what’s going on 2 decades of insanity, the DOE has decided it might be wise to invest more time towards teaching practical skills that will best serve the needs of our special ed students as they reach the critical age of 21, when mandated services are no longer in effect.
We need to teach these skills so that they can live independently within different social settings when they reach adulthood.
This is not a new concept. It’s what we were doing in the ’90s. The reformers decided to shelve and replace this curriculum with rigorous academic standards for all. Both general and special ed. Brilliant.
The pendulum is swinging back. This is a good thing and we, as teachers, are being told to think of some ways we can fit some practical skill periods into the school day. The caveat, though, is that we must still include and meet the state mandated CCSS.
So be it. Time to be creative, again. A glimmer of hope.
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the people who run eduction in this nation are CLUELESS about what constitutes ESSENTIAL LEARNING SKILLS like strategic paling, comparison (of what one knows to what one sees and hears… we call this ANALYSIS and it is a critical THINKING SKILL, that all humans can learn, simply by having focused education on things that interest their minds, such as arts, music, tech skills (building things, fixing things).
This insane emphasis on memorizing information, and that core curricula crap are all ‘eduction’ nonsense put our by non-professional educators who never stepped into a room with children, where LEARNING TO THINK was the outcome.
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Critical thinking skills have been replaced by close reading.
Remember, insights from professionals such as Maslow, Gardener, Hunter, Wong, and Piaget were dismissed when their names were added to the “Idiot List” created by the current batch of pseudo-education specialists.
I laughed when Bill Gates proudly proclaimed (as if he had made an earth shattering discovery) that there was more than one type of intelligence.
No sh**, Sherlock!
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When Tennessee took on the so called diploma project, we began to teach everybody courses with college titles. Algebra I, Algebra II, and Chemistry. Teachers knew they had to make passing possible. Teachers continued to try to get students to come along as far as they could. What choice did they have?
Every student cannot possibly be ready for Algebra I as a ninth grader. If a school is small enough so that the teachers know the students personally, schools will steer the students in the right direction humanely so that the students know they have had input on their choices. We do not need some blanket policy dictated from afar by some politically motivated person. Let the schools do what they can.
If there comes to light some school that does not have as many students who make it to the top of the heap, try to come to their aid. Ask them what they need. Be ready to spend money to fix the problem if there is one. Be ready to work on the problem for decades. Good results take time.
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I didn’t take any college prep courses in high school and went into the Marines right after graduation.
At the time, I had no intention of ever going to college until one day in Vietnam when a sniper almost took me out with a long distance shot where the bullet brushed the skin of my left ear lobe and that was only one of several close calls. There were mortar rounds dropped on our positions, rockets fired at our positions from outside the wire, buried IED’s when we were in the field or moving in convoys, etc.
That one sniper changed my mind about college, and when I was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1968, the two-year community college I went to on the GI Bill required me to take all of those courses (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Chemistry, Biology, Calculus, Trig, etc). I struggled through all those courses to pass them and then never used anything I learnt in those classes. And it’s true, use it or lose it and I lost it – what I learned in those classes.
What a total waste of time that was. To take all the courses I wanted and the ones the community college told me I had to take required carrying more than 20 class credits each semester for two years while working part time jobs nights and weekends before I graduated with a useless AS degree and transferred to a four-year state college to eventually earn a BA in journalism.
The Vietnam GI Bill didn’t pay enough money, so I had to work those part-time jobs, but I didn’t need those classes.
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Lloyd, I have neglected to say – “Thank you for your service!”
Ellen T Klock
While the courses you took were irrelevant, the learning process was not, especially in math where you have analyze and think things through to reach the right conclusion. It’s not a justification, but it’s at least a positive take away. Plus please don’t regret knowing something about science, even if you forgot most of it, so you can make a somewhat informed decision about matters such as Global Warming or the Coal Wars or even deciphering what the doctor says about your liver, spleen, or heart.
While I don’t think it was necessarily a waste of time, you would have been better served by courses which better suited your individual needs.
My dyslexic son wanted to go to the local community college and attend culinary school, but before he could take the hands on courses to learn his craft he had to pass the introduction to writing course. Needless to say, that just wasn’t going to happen.
Right now he doesn’t know what he wants to do. Any suggestions?
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There are private culinary schools but that means it will cost more.
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Are there no services for LD students at your community college? Here is where computer technology could be of real assistance with voice recognition software. I know nothing about what is available for culinary school, but I think I would be becoming an expert. It is far too soon to give up because the community college requires a writing course. In the meantime, he can start practicing with YouTube videos. I am certainly far from a master cook, but I did spend part of a summer cooking for my family when I was in high school. It sounds like he could benefit from some hands on opportunities. Does your local library have a librarian with some research skills? they can be incredibly helpful.
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Thank you for your suggestions, Lloyd. My son ended up working at an upscale restaurant where a master chef gave him on the job training. He had worked his way up the chain from dishwasher to assistant manager when the corporation changed management teams, hired cheaper help, and booted out the current employees. This nice successful Bistro closed within the year – small consolation to my son.
He wants to go in a different direction, but is at a loss as to which career path would be the best choice for him.
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Have you seen this film?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3OkPRRptgQ
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It’s too bad so many in society are treating high school, not as a place to receive a general, well rounded education preparing students to be productive citizens, but as a college prep institute.
They are short sighted, failing to recognize the growing shortage of individuals pursuing a career in vocational fields such as plumbing, carpentry, masonry, refrigeration, etc.
I know a lot of very smart people who can’t plunge a toilet.
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They (the pirates and frauds that worship at the altar of avarice) don’t care about the future or the kids or education. If more kids can be convinced to go to college that means more student loans. Instead of a $1 trillion in student loans, there will be $2 or $3 or $4 or more Trillions crippling the future of the next generation because they were lied to about college.
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Lloyd I partially agree with you here – a recent high school in DC has been in the news for having 100% of its graduating class get accepted to college – my fear (in part cause I saw this when I taught in DC) is that kids will head off for one year, come back with huge debts but no academic progress. As with many things we need more true wrap around supports…however I don’t think that not having them aim for college is the answer
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The U.S. could do what most countries do. For instance, in Japan, when children start high school, they are offered two choices: academic or vocational. About 70-percent of Japan’s high school students select an academic high school with a goal to go to college. The other 30-percent go to vocational high schools with a goal to go to work after graduating.
When the U.S. high school graduation rate has been compared to Japan’s to make the U.S. rate look bad, there is never any mention that in the U.S. all the high schools are academic and there are no vocational high school degrees. There might be a few vocational classes in Ameican high schools offered as electives, but few if any public high schools that focus on job skills after high school.
Currently, the U.S. has about 3-college grads for every job that requires a college degree, but the U.S. isn’t the only country with more college grades than equivalent jobs. This challenge doesn’t just exist in the United States.
For instance, Canada:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/recent-university-grads-increasingly-jobless-study-shows/article20357775/
Or Japan and South Korea
https://basc.berkeley.edu/?p=1522
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Lloyd you are right about comparing graduation rates with other countries – since many do something similar to what Japan does. But I am wondering how many 9th graders really know what they want to do for the rest of their life. What did you want to do in grade 9? Should we really make that decision? I also wonder if we did this how many Childre. of color or children from lower income families would end up in ththe vocational track?
Look I agree that four year colleges are not for everyone. One of my former HS students someone that was a top student has ended up with a business doing eye lash extensions in Atlanta. Her business is in an upscale part of Atlanta (buck head) where she had three employees. I am impressed and proud as she found her passion. And I will openly confess that at one time I was disappointed she didn’t follow a traditional path. I was wrong.
That being said I like to think that when she graduated from HS she had lots of options. She wasn’t forced down a path because of choices she made in grade 9 or because she didn’t take certain classes
LCT and others who may disagree with me I am wondering what you think are the basics that kids should have in HS?
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Students who live in the city of Buffalo have a special program where their tuition to college will be paid for all four years, and not just to SUNY Schools. A student at the school where I used to work got accepted into Harvard, but has chosen MIT instead.
For a significant portion of minorities in the city, they will be the first member of their family to have the opportunity to go to college Too many have parents who didn’t even graduate from high school.
There are two sides to the coin.
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The basic composition of a high school diploma should be as local a decision as possible. We do not need more mandates unless they have to do with access. There is a difference, however, between access and requirement.
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Just a question, but why does excelling at math or science make someone more “elite” than someone who excels at music or auto mechanics or computers or art or sewing or cooking or any of hundreds of other fields?
The UC system is not designed for the “elite”, it’s designed for students who excel in specific, selected fields (selected by the wealthy who wish to replicate society as it is and pass their benefits down to their offspring).. Even though we all have to eat and we could live without math, somehow cooking well is less “elite” than doing math well. Something very wrong with the world we live in.
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This whole conversation is another version of talk about “college and career readiness”–a meme that reflects the bi-polarism of corporate reformers who think they have a corner on wisdom about education.
Since the late 1990s they have popularized the “college and career readiness” meme. And they made sure federal policies said that there is no difference–just teach to the Common Core standards and aligned tests. One size fits all is the only way to go because, you know, the nation cannot compete in the global economy without rigorous academic standards, world-class, etc. This was the wisdom from corporate leaders who also helped to tank the world economy in 2008. We are drowning in standards and tests and economic uncertainties.
This conversation about college or job/career is happening in 2017, the 100th year anniversary of The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, with next year marking the 100th year anniversary of The Cardinal Principles in 1918.
You can learn more about these artifacts from history on wikipedia. Here is a teaser.
The Smith-Hughes act of 1917 provided federal money for vocational education–almost exclusively for training high school students to work on a farm. You can find the gendered part of the legislation and also the stipulation that NO courses suitable for college and higher education would be funded as or for vocational education.
Fast forward. The No Child Left Behind Act included many references to “vocational education.” The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, systematically edits out “vocational education” replacing that phrase with “career and technical education.”
I add a personal note. My brother Arthur went to college on the GI Bill. Unlike Lloyd, he had not seen combat. Arthur came of age as a high school dropout, but he dropped out with parental permission and a good reason. In high school, Arthur was a so-so student but he became known as a gifted maker of model airplanes (balsa, tissue paper, moveable rudders,miniature motors) and skilled draftsman of plans for model airplanes.
Arthur was among other high school students recruited for the WWII effort by an organization we now know as NASA. Arthur travelled to Langley Field, VA where he and others lived and worked on some wind tunnel tests for aircraft. I would not call this an apprenticeship, but he learned he had the right stuff to work as a professional and became an official member of the “Brain Busters Club.”
Arthur completed high school, at age 19. He then served non-combat duty in the Army, volunteering for assignments that required mechanical know-how. In college he majored in Industrial Design, added a degree in mechanical engineering, worked on major projects for NASA among others. Long story short, he lived to accept NASA’s invitation to the 5Oth reunion of the “Brainbusters Club.”
Point the story. Force-feeding one-size-fits-all pre-collegiate and collegiate requirements on every student is just as mistaken as thinking that all “makers” and performers have no interest in, or need for formal studies.
Others have already said that incuding Diane.
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I think Arthur was the winner here. And he isn’t alone as a non-combat vet. For every combat vet in the field, there are several non-combat troops that make up the supply chain that keeps the combat troops operational. Imagine the number of troops it takes to maintain one jet fighter with a one or two man crew that flies combat missions. The pilot does not maintain the jet he flies. He doesn’t load the bombs or pump the fuel.
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That was an elegantly written truth, Laura. I just want to note one thing before I stop commenting on this post and spend the rest of the evening watching the summer baseball game here, that denying a diploma to a student for not taking college courses is Arne Duncan’s wish and Rahm Emmanuel’s command.
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The reformers consider themselves “realists”. The lower skill jobs aren’t coming back, so we have to get everyone on a higher academic level, in this New World Order. Either that or it’s the service industry.
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The central problem is rooted in our misguided attempt in advancing a meritocracy. The person who coined this term, British social scientist Michael Young, did not view our emerging meritocracy in a favorable light. Rather, it has become characterized, as Nicholas Lemann pointed out in his book on our “SAT” meritocracy, by a competitive frenzy directed at getting a college education—preferably at the most selective and prestigious institution possible. This is because such an education is deemed (not without good reason) as a deciding factor in who will reap America’s rich material rewards. To the extent that we fail to make available to all citizens opportunities for careers that are lucrative or assure that the wages for all work necessary for a modern society are reasonably compensated, we merely exacerbate our society’s growing income inequality, and as Lemann wrote, alter the”moral calculus” in our society. This altered moral calculus is already self-evident.
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see this
https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/confronting-the-soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations/
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Interesting article, Charles. Thanks for the link. I agree with almost all of it…which is to say that it’s my personal opinion that most of it is on the mark. Others will think otherwise.
The sticking point, for me, has to do with the basic concept of “low expectations”, in general. And I’m going to write something long, now. So if you want to bail, I’ll understand.
My entire 20+ years of teaching has been spent teaching K-8 kids with special needs. 17 years of work with inner city kids with severe emotional difficulties. The rest has been heavily focused on children who have autism, coming from varying backgrounds.
At no time have I or the vast majority of my colleagues held “low expectations” for our kids. We work with the person we see in front of us and adjust (differentiate) the content to fit the need(s). Both with individual and group instruction.
When I first started teaching in the ’90s, we were told by the professors in our masters program, school admins, and colleagues, that if we can reach one or two of our class of 12 in a single school year, we should be happy.
Nowadays, if we don’t show significant progress with the entire class, we’re subject to review, “tutoring”, and possible termination.
The idea of reaching all 12 kids vs one or two would seem “superior” and much more acceptable except for one, very important thing: many of these kids either do not want to be or very simply aren’t capable of being “reached” according to the guidelines set. And beating yourself over the head because you couldn’t reach all of them will create a quick exit out the door, looking for a different career.
Every period of every day with my ED kids saw at least one or two full blown, desks flying, physical fights. Verbal “dissing” was the norm. I used a token economy, confronting/contracting, breaks between classes shooting a nerf basketball, snacks, and many, many other tools with varying degrees of success. The kids liked me. Some respected me. But they were in my class for a very definite reason and it was not because of their academic prowess. Academics took a back seat to the immediate physical situation at hand on a regular basis.
The reformers, citing higher expectations, took the behavior management tools away from us by structuring our school days so that “rigor” could be administered and measured. It didn’t work. In fact; it made things worse.
We teach the kids we see in front of us. We modify the content of the curriculum in order to teach just below their frustration level so that they can experience success and still be challenged for advancement’s sake. But a 6th grader who’s reading at a 1st grade level is where he or she is. Teaching them at their functional level and taking the time needed to cool them down when they lose it isn’t an indication of “low expectations”. It’s being realistic. And respectful to the kid that you’re trying to help.
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What you said.
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In my last teaching job, I was in a lower socioeconomic minority majority community. As a special ed teacher, I had students who were years behind their peers. The trouble was that many of their peers would qualify for special ed services if they lived in an affluent community since their skills were far below the average performance in more affluent communities. I remember being appalled by some of the project displays I saw these high school students had completed: dioramas that would adorn elementary school hallways in higher rent suburbs. I can’t blame the teachers completely or obviously the students who didn’t know to expect more of themselves. Were they capable of more? Yes. I saw incredibly beautiful artwork and the woodworking program produced furniture that I would not hesitate to have in my home. There were students who were in a college track program and while they had not been exposed to as much as their more affluent peers in neighboring districts, their desire to excel gave them an edge over many of their classmates. There was no doubt that one day they would compete on equal footing with their more advantaged peers.
I remember the group effort of several special ed teachers, myself included, to convince a special ed student that she was capable of so much more. Her favorite fictional character had been Junie B. Jones. When she was shown what her peers were reading, it helped to shock her out of her complacency. Her behavior changed when she tried to join into activities with more socially adept students who let her know when her behavior was out of bounds. Basketball was a great teacher for her. By the time she graduated, you would not have recognized her as the same girl.
MY whole point in writing this narrative, is to highlight how difficult it is to understand what a cliche like “the soft bigotry of low expectations” really means. What does it take to convince anybody that they or someone else is capable of far more than they believe? What does it take to convince a community, both the haves and the have nots, of the capability and possibility of their weakest members to be fully contributing members of society and our ability as a society to help them reach their full potential?
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What you said.
🙂
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