Well put. Is this for XMCA?
Marty
At 08:01 AM 1/15/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Hello:
>
>gkcunn01 wrote:
>>What is being proposed is already a reality in many states. It is called
>>School to Work or STW for short. It is very scary concept.
>
>This is a delicate and compicated issue. As I experienced the curricula of
>the high schools at which I taught, much of the work students did was
>directed toward future study. That is nowhere more clear than in the
>"college prep" classes, where students from the mainstream (or who have
>adapted to it) are trained to go to college. In "non-college-prep"
>classes, the purpose of the curriculum is defined negatively. That is,
>rather than being offered an independent purpose for their studies, these
>teenagers are being told (explicitly or implicitly) that they aren't going
>to make it in the academic world, so they'll be given a watered-down
>version of the same information that "college-prep" students get simply
>because it's what they can handle.
>
>I agree that it's dangerous to divide students into the academically
>inclined and the vocational ed. students, especially since many of them are
>coping so much with a legacy of schooling that has turned them off to
>learning that they don't know where their gifts lie. I also worry that
>education oriented towards business ends will contribute to the
>anti-intellectualism that already encourages many Americans to deny the
>beauty of intellectual activity for its own sake. BUT, I think it's very
>important that we support students in finding a meaning for their work in
>their own lives. If that means helping them learn the practical skills
>that will serve them in business and as participants in a democracy, so be
>it.
>
>Just as composition researchers are talking about writing as a recursive
>process, I think we need to change our model of education from a model that
>imagines students as going through school to become something that they
>then remain for the rest of their lives to one that sees students as making
>choices to use education in ways that serve the goals that they set for the
>foreseeable future. In the late 20th century, we're seeing people change
>jobs and careers (perhaps) more frequently than ever before. Such a trend
>suggests that on-going education must happen and is happening among adults.
>Perhaps we should let the teens in on the adventure.
>
>I sometimes wonder how well high school students would make such choices,
>but I think they must be trained to do so, guided in evaluating their
>options, and allowed to learn from their mistakes.
>
>OK, enough utopianism.
>
>
>Nelson Graff
>
>
>
>
>
Martin Nystrand
Professor, Department of English (608 263-3820)
Editor, Written Communication (608 263-4512)
Director, Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA)
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
685 Education Sciences
1025 West Johnson Street
Madison WI 53706
608 263-0563 voice
608 263-6448 fax