Which
school offers a real, semesterlong class where kids are shown the
reality of college-based occupations vs. technical school occupations?
Which high school has a mandatory class that has testing for a student’s
interests/abilities and helps a kid match that to real job careers with
a livable salary?
Kids
watch TV and see different situations where nearly everyone makes a
great salary, lives in a beautiful home and never seems to have money
problems. That isn’t what happens to most of us.
There
should be a class that every student must take that tests them and
shows the students and their parents where the child’s natural abilities
and interests lie, what careers match with those abilities and their
earning potential. Kids need to know that some college degree careers
pay less than some vo-tech careers. The class also needs to teach kids
about everything from checking/ savings account info to credit cards and
mortgage- and car-payment scenarios.
I
graduated from college in 1977; it took me five years. I changed majors
three times, adding a year to college. They didn’t have a class like
that in 1972, either.
—Scot Campbell, Coyle
This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2013.