Vocational, by Any Other Name, Still Works

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Permalink Reply by Luis Mourey on January 18, 2010 at 10:12am

I agree with you like Peter Drucker says I his book Managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself, The historic shift to self-management offers organizations four ways to best develop and motivate knowledge workers:
• Know people's strengths.
• Place them where they can make the greatest contributions.
• Treat them as associates.
• Expose them to challenges.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Fuller on January 20, 2010 at 9:10am

Thanks, I belive I will put that book on my amazon wish list.

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Fuller on January 19, 2010 at 6:48pm

I recently stated in an online discussion that I believe we should consider taking a close look at students strengths by the time they are in ninth grade and help them along a path that is tailored to their strengths and interests. Many people know this practice by yet another bad word in education, "tracking." Someone else responded by saying something to the effect that we can't put our kids in a box and rule out all the possibilities in their future. Putting kids in a box is exactly what we are doing now under NCLB and the naive assumption that we can prepare every individual for a four year college education. In the process we are stifling the possibilities for students with advance academic potential, and disenchanting students who would rather learn how to repair engines or build houses. In the long run, we are losing students who would do very well in trade related vocations, and prevent future doctors and and scientists from achieving at their highest academic potential. In general, as a society, we just plain lose.

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Permalink Reply by Shelia McDill on January 20, 2010 at 7:44am

Thanks for your response,Jeffrey. I agree with you. At one time, there were rumours about having several different types of high school diplomas. One for the college bound upper level degree, one for a technical degree, and so on. Although this concept sounds like a great deal of paperwork, I don't disagree with the idea. Everyone is not "college-bound-upper-level" material. There is no shame or embarrassment about that. We simply need to be producing a society of workers with skills. I feel that education now is producing a lot of bored, disinterested, unimaginative people who have no clue about applying what they have learned in school.

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