What is the purpose of primary education?
So, this is an interesting question that was asked of school board candidates by the local paper.
"Should the board incorporate career and technical education courses into the state’s graduation requirements?"
One candidate said that they should be an option, and the other candidate said something that calls into question my assumptions of what primary education is about:
Kansas schools must teach employable skills to each K-12 student. After graduation, each student should be prepared to earn a living wage with skills which employers need.
Should it? I've always viewed primary education as providing fundamental skills required for life... reading, writing, math, a reasonable understanding of our geography, history and government, and exposure to the arts. Students may acquire experience with shop, home ec, foreign language, business writing, and so on, but I've always considered these to be introductory experiences, not real vocational training. If a graduate doesn't go on to formal secondary education, I expect that they're going to learn on-the-job.
I think it comes down to this for me: If a high school graduate declines to seek formal secondary training, whether it be college, technical school or an apprentice program, that graduate is 18 years old and responsible for themselves. Just because 75% of students fail to seek secondary education (is it really that high?) doesn't mean the primary education system is failing them and needs to prepare them to live with their decision. If they are satisfied with a high school education, why should we make an effort to give them more?
And I think that's the big thing for me... it's not the government's job to legislate away bad decision making. People are always going to make bad life decisions, and we can't stop them from doing so. If somehow 18 years old has become "too young to know better," whose fault is that? That's the parents' responsibility, not the school system's. And then, there are things that you just have to learn by experience... I didn't go to college right away and regretted it, later entering college in my early twenties. (And in my thirties, earning to degrees to make up for lost time. :)
Here's the thing. We will always need garbage haulers, fast food clerks and big-box store stockers. If that is all a high school graduate wants to aspire to, that's not the school's fault. It's sad that they don't aspire to more, yes, but ultimately the state is not responsible for aspirations.
Here's another thing. By the time a student graduates from high school, they ought to already have some job experience. In grade school, I sold greeting cards door to door. In middle school, I delivered newspapers. In high school, I worked at a fast food restaurant. Every one of those was a valuable experience. As sucky as working fast food was, I learned a lot about customer service, teamwork, and simply working under management.
If I were looking to hire someone and had the resume of a recent high school graduate in my hands, I wouldn't be asking what he learned in school, I'd be looking at what job experience he has. Heck, when I was part of an interview team that interviewed a lot of college graduates for a programming position, we didn't look at their school work, we looked at their job experience... the candidates who worked pizza delivery or waiting tables while in college didn't impress us nearly as much as those who worked in computer tech support or other jobs related to their intended careers.
Nothing prepares a person for working a job like actual job experience. You start at the bottom and work your way into better positions and jobs as you gain experience. Changing primary education can't fix that. It's already providing the skills necessary to work minimum-wage jobs, and I think that's all it should be responsible for. If a graduate wants better than minimum wage and doesn't want secondary education, then that graduate should expect to start at the bottom and work their way into a better job.
Primary education needs to concentrate on primary education, not job training.