Posted on 08/14/2004 11:00:11 AM PDT by George Frm Br00klyn Park
Eco-Logic PowerHouse
From From EdWatch...
FACT: "School-to-Work" is alive and well!
By Michael J. Chapman
For several years, EdWatch (formerly, The Maple River Education Coalition) has been warning of a coming state-planned-and-managed economy by means of the federal "School-to-Work (STW) System." We've explained how the federal agenda was driven into all 50 states by three federal bills passed piecemeal under the Clinton administration (Goals 2000, STW, and the Workforce Investment Act).
On July 19, 2004, the federal House Education & the Workforce Committee posted a "fact sheet" denying that School- to -Work was involved in the pending Vocational Education funding bill (H.R. 4496), as the Edwatch alert of July 17th points out (http://www.edwatch.org/updates/071704.htm). The Committee's statement goes so far as to say that H.R. 4496, along with "No Child Left Behind," puts "another nail in the coffin of the so-called STW initiative."
Unfortunately, their coffin contains "STW" in name only! Call it what you will, but this month, Minnesota's Governor's Workforce Development Council (GWDC), a mandatory creation of the Federal Workforce Investment Act, released a series of reports demonstrating the agenda to replace the free-market economy is alive and well.
Minnesota's GWDC report (http://www.gwdc.org/investmentadvisory.PDF), dated three days prior to the posting of the Committee "fact sheet," recommends that Minnesota's governor adopt the next phase of the "seamless system" of education, workforce preparation, and economic development (i.e. The School-to-Work System)!
The next phase actually tightens the grip on education by turning our high schools into job-training centers, sometimes called "smaller learning communities," (see http://www.edwatch.org/updates/102203.htm).
Minnesota recently rejected the Goals 2000 education standards, locally called "The Profile of Learning," and replaced them with more "knowledge-based" standards. These new standards posed an obstacle to the federal STW plan, and were the primary reason the radical left refused to confirm the appointment of Minnesota's education commissioner!
Don't take my word for it. According to Minnesota's GWDC report, the "issues, which negatively affect Minnesota's ability to develop its emerging workforce," include these:
"Minnesota has increased its emphasis on core academic skills at the expense of workplace skills."
"Elementary and secondary aged students oftentimes do not realize the need for... career exploration experiences, and are not fully utilizing the resources available for career exploration. Career exploration... helps emerging workers prepare for a career that matches the individual's interests and abilities."
"Emerging workers are entering the workforce without the skills they need to be successful. If students have only received training in the core academic areas during their elementary and secondary educational experiences, they must learn many of the workplace skills from another source."
"Meeting federal No Child Left Behind Standards for core academics." [Our critics continually insist that NCLB has no particular standards, when, in fact, this statement acknowledges that the national standards consist of a de facto federal curriculum.]
"Begin to hone a specific skill set for future employment through work-based learning." [Work based learning is frequently mentioned in the vocational education reauthorization, HR 4496.]
"Work with the Minnesota State Legislature to increase the funding available for [schools] to hire more [career, not academic] counselors."
"Incorporate aspects of career exploration into the classroom more frequently... integrate career exploration into the curriculum... require teachers to have career experiences outside the field of teaching... with an outside business for licensure renewal."
"Require the Minnesota Department of Education to integrate career exploration into the graduation standards... Also, careers will be linked to outcome expectations."
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THIS article at Eco Logic / PowerHouse
Yes, in other words this group is advocating that children be guided not to work, or to eventually find work they do not find interesting or stimulating.
Unhappy workers leads to inefficiency, but as long as the state had no part in helping them realize their potential... Then it must be okay.
"Minnesota has increased its emphasis on core academic skills at the expense of workplace skills."Guys,And, THIS is a major problem to our educational "leaders". Our schools must become "training" facillities rather than bastions of education. The idea is to train children as we do dogs and ponies rather than educate them. What passes for education today is STONE COLD "EVIL"!!! Please bump this. Peace and love, George.
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My husband subscribes to EdWatch's emails. Very worth getting..
C2, Workers are happier when they can choose their own line of work or profession. Well educated people can do most anything. Include think. That must not be allowed in our new world order. "They" will think for US. This is EVIL!! Peace and love, George.
That says it all!
By the way I agree the forced determination is wrong. Remembering back to when I learned about the old Soviet Union in school. We were taught how at a young age you took a test. This test then determined the type of education you got and what your career would be. Garbage man or doctor based on a test you took at 10? Is this the path we are not headed?
I did not read the whole article before responding. And was thinking wow, my husband and I sure could have benefitted from free vocational education. But now reading it it sounds more like the USSR
PL, Also the jobs of the past and present. People who can read and write and do some mathmatics have always been good and better at them as well as other professions. We need to educate children rather than train them as we do dogs and horses and apes. I have had highly placed officials tell me that "Truck drivers don't have to know how to read. They can use their computers". And, we are teaching children how to use calculators and punch symbols in order to get answers to problems. Leading to the pictures on MacDonalds cash registers. This rather than teaching the "Three Rs". And politically appointed bureaucrats will decide what professions each student is "suitable" for. This is stone cold EVIL!!! Peace and love, George.
PL, YUP!! Except, of course, "We'll do it right". Peace and love, George.
In that system that is devolving, Newton would of been shelved into a farmer.
Right, we are going to import all of our Engineerrgs and Scientists.
Ping
Please. Before we do anymore pummeling of the public school system, think about what you are saying. Go visit schools in your community. I teach "career investigation" at a local high school. Students research and explore careers that are currently in the U.S. system. All careers are in "clusters". Students take interest tests to determine what may fit their abilities and interests. They job shadow a person in the field of their choice and report on that field to their classmates. Yes, there are some students who still have difficulty identifying a possible field of interest for themselves, but those students typcially have many interests. If my figures are correct, the class may save them 40k. In my years of teaching, I have observed that many college bound students drop out of college after 2 years because they haven't found a direction. The counseling programs at the college level are non existant. I'm proud to be providing a service to these kids through this course. I'm not saying that these students are locked into a career from my course, but it gives them a direction to follow. It's better to expose them to all the choices that are available to them now than to have them fumble blindly. My students are going every career direction possible. A side note: I wish I had a family member as a plumber. After my last visit by a plumber (I was surprised that it was a former student), my bill topped out at $100/hour! I can't make that kind of money as a teacher!
Looks like an excellent article, George. Saving to read after the storm.
STW is definitely another plank in the communist take-over of this country. Many of our rulers have worked tirelessly hand in hand with the global money-changers across all spectrums toward this goal.
'The President of the Ford Foundation, Rowan Gaither, told Norman Dodd, the Research Director of the 1953 congressional committee to investigate the tax-exempt leftwing foundations, that the foundations received their instructions from the White House to spend their money so that the United States could be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.'
Other related articles:
WHY ARE THE NEW FANGLED TESTS CALLED ASSESSMENTS? THE ANSWER IS SHOCKING...Is Your Child Human Capital? Yes, According to the Architects of the New Global Economy. ? [Your child's worth is equated with how much their parasite masters can potentially skim off their lifetime earnings in taxes.] http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/bless/childcap.htm
Executive Order No. 13037
COMMISSION TO STUDY CAPITAL BUDGETING http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/eo/eo13037.htm
Are you noticing how elected school boards are being disbanded in favor of boards appointed from the corporations? They outsource the best jobs, and let us pay to train our kids to do the menial labor they can't hire out. A few years back, I read where Utah was taking the kids out of class to be trained in cleaning the sewer lines, in connection with STW. Somebody has to do it, but don't use tax dollars for it and call it 'education'. Federal government has no business in education. None. They want our kids younger and younger in order to indoctrinate them in being dutiful little communists before they are old enough to read. DC tried to make it mandatory to put all 2 1/2 year-olds in school. Enough is enough.
About five years ago, my state decided that all juniors and seniors in the public schools would devote one day of school to a School-to-Work program (20% of their school week). If they chose not to do this, they would be required to work on their own time -- vacations and week-ends. Required, not voluntary.
People raised hell about it and the plan was abandoned. Most parents feel the public school's mission is to impart academic knowledge to students and that students will decide what they want to do for a living when they want to.
Any idiot could have seen this coming when the wholesale renaming of personnel departments was changed to "Human Resources."
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