Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Linking college academics to careers? Oh my! What a novel idea!

A recent article in the Washington Post reported on the idea that many college undergraduates are uncertain about academic disciplines.

The article also states:

As a result, many students leave school without fully tapping their interests and aptitudes and without appreciating how their academic knowledge is connected to their future careers...
What?  People are going to college without really knowing what they want to do when they get out?

Perhaps if students could make time in their high school schedule to pursue a few Career and Technical Education courses they might gain a better insight to their interests and aptitudes before they even begin college.

However a number of factors including budget cuts and a push by many states to increase "core curriculum" requirements are making it difficult for many secondary schools to continue offering a good variety of CTE courses.

As a result, I believe the Washington Post article illustrates how this is really a disservice to our students.