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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Are your childern amoung the two-thirds of America's Youth that will not attend a four-year college?

Should Schools Offer a Two-Tract Curriculum?

Two-tract curriculum has been a controversial subject since the late 18th century and continues to be an issue today.

In the early days of education, school was primarily for individuals planning to go to college and prepare for careers such as professionals, doctors, lawyers, teachers, ministers, and engineers. However, due to compulsory school laws, the schools of America had a much larger and diverse population to serve. The diversity of the students from different cultures and social backgrounds with different job interests required the schools to create a two-tract curriculum to serve the student population. This consisted of a practical one for terminal students and a classical one for college bound students.

Today, many schools and individuals feel academics skills are more important then technical education. Technical and vocational programs even find themselves fighting and defending their programs to keep them from being closed. Academic requirements are also being set higher, which is leading to fewer opportunities for students to elect technical education programs. While academics are a very important part of any education, I feel technical education play an important role as well.

I believe technical education is vital to keep American strong and successful. Technical programs need to be there to provide opportunities for individuals that do not plan to go attend a four-year college. The technical industry is in desperate need for qualified employees today and will hold true in the future. If we cut programs resulting in less trained employees to meet the needs of employers, is a step toward failure in America. If we take a look at history, we see that the lack of technical programs available resulted in a high uneducated society and an extremely high crime rate. I don't know about you, but I don't think we should repeat history. I think we should continue offering a two-tract curriculum and realize all students are not going to attend a four-year university. The National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) report that two-thirds of America’s young people do not obtain a four year degree. This tells me we need to focus more on the two-thirds of the youth in America.

Now, I'm not against four-year programs. I think that is great for the college bound students. I just think we should offer the same level of support for technical education. What do you think?

Visit us on the web at http://www.learnautobody.comif you're involved in the automotive or collision repair industry. We're looking to network with instructors, students and others in the industry to provide optimum results within the industry. We'll be glad to hear from you.

~Donnie Smith

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