Quote Originally Posted by thcbongman
The biggest problem of schools in America is the failure to create programs to learn a specific trade, apprenticeship programs.

I went to a technical high school- we had trades for EVERYTHING:
Agri-business and Animal Science
Floral Design
Landscape Architecture and Grounds Maintenance
Auto Diagnostics and Systems Repair
Refinishing and Collision Repair
Brick and Block Masonry
Carpentry
Electricity
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning
Plumbing
Licensed Cosmetology
Food Preparation and Management
Nursing Assistant
Certified Welding
Drafting and Computer Aided Design
Electronic Circuitry
Machining and Computer Aided Manufacturing
Printing and Graphic Communication

I have worked as a nursing assistant for 3 years. I'm not going into the nursing field, and a good 25-30% of students who also decided not to go into their respected fields. Nothing wrong with that. But it gave me the ability to get REAL life experience, to show what was expected of me in the workforce- that kids can't be immature and irresponsible, or you'd get your ass canned.

I know now how to relate to people, and treat them with respect, while maintaining a better salary than my non-technical high school counterparts did; as an added bonus, more colleges are willing to accept technical high school students more readily than others, because we HAVE that experience.

There are bad teachers- they simply don't know how to relate the information to the student while keeping them at least mildly interested. I've heard lectures given about the anatomical structure of a fingernail that has kept me very interested. However, that is NOT a valid reason for a student to do poorly in school, if the lecture is uninteresting. There are tutoring programs readily available for free. They just need the effort.