Let’s Talk Shop About Kids and Careers

It certainly is good news that Los Angeles County has decided to offer vocational classes, along with reading, writing and math, to young inmates at the county’s 19 juvenile camps.

So 16-year-old Tim, who has been in and out of juvenile hall since he was 13, is learning to repair computers. And 18-year-old Martel, who’s serving time for receiving stolen property, has been taught to set up online networks. The hope is that the classes will steer juvenile offenders toward more constructive pursuits.

I’m all for anything that helps these kids become productive citizens. But what about the young men and women who have managed to stay on the right side of the law? What are we doing for 15-year-old Tony, who’s sitting in class at your local high school, marking time until he gets his diploma, unprepared to do much more after graduation than stumble through life at minimum wage?

College isn’t in the cards. He’s not interested in another few years of literature and algebra, even if he could qualify. He’s a good kid--hard-working, honest, reliable--but prospects are bleak for a young man whose resume lists little more than passing grades and a few years behind a McDonald’s counter.

I’ll bet Tony would love to learn to fix a computer or repair a car. Does he have to rob someone before we give him a chance?

Ageneration ago, kids like Tony would have passed through a series of vocational classes en route to graduation. Auto shop, drafting, cooking, woodworking ... classes that might ignite in them a hidden passion, or at least prepare them to leave school with the fundamentals of a trade.

Those classes are disappearing from our schools today, the victim of encroaching technology and a disdain for anything that doesn’t square with our focus on higher test scores and college-for-all.

Once the domain of students not considered college material, shop classes prepared kids to earn a living. Well, those kids are still with us, never mind the hoopla about every child going on to college. The reality is not every student can, or should. But everyone needs to be prepared to support himself or herself--and a family--some day.

County probation officials recognize a simple truth: Kids who are allowed to develop and pursue their own interests are more apt to stay in school, and more prepared for life after graduation. We seem to have lost sight of that in our push to keep all students moving in lock-step along the most demanding academic tracks.

I’m not advocating a return to the voc ed system of the past. Too often, students were herded into shop classes by ethnicity or income level. Kids who were black or brown or poor were taught a trade instead of how to think, denied a chance to strengthen their academics, discouraged from pursuing college degrees. Even today, some shop teachers complain that their classes wind up as dumping grounds for the unmotivated, the behavior problems, the class clowns.

But the realities of family, economics and business dictate that we find some way to match the interests and abilities of students with the needs of society. Businesses are crying about the lack of trained employees, craftsmen and women are in short supply and society is becoming more economically stratified. Without either a skill or a college education, even high school graduates will be consigned to jobs that pay less than a living wage.

“A college education is wonderful,” says Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a former school board member in Los Angeles and one of several state legislators sponsoring legislation to rebuild our crumbling vocational ed system. But only about 20% of jobs today require four years of college, and only one in four high school students will wind up with a college degree. “Let’s face it, you still need tool and die makers, carpenters, plumbers, people to fix the car, people who can run a commercial kitchen. The private sector is screaming that they don’t have anybody to hire, but what are we doing to prepare kids for those jobs?”

In the past 20 years, vocational offerings in California schools have declined by more than 75%. For example, more than half the state’s high school auto shop programs have shut down, even though 26% of the state’s automotive mechanics are expected to retire in the next four years.

Academic reforms that raised the bar in subjects like math, English and science took money away from vocational programs.

“I don’t think schools wanted to get rid of the classes, but they couldn’t afford them anymore,” Goldberg said. It’s hard to teach subjects like drafting or auto shop without investing in expensive equipment. “It’s not the same old ‘change the oil’ mentality, not just drafting tables and T squares. If we’re going to train these kids, we have to teach them on the kind of equipment they’ll be expected to use. That takes money and commitment.”

There are some bright spots on the comeback trail. Partnerships with businesses have produced funding for innovative programs in vocations such as drafting and culinary arts at a handful of schools. Community colleges and adult education centers have opened their classes to high school students. And the new focus on academics has infused some vocational programs with a holistic kind of vitality.

“I think there’s a growing political will to push for more vocational programs,” Goldberg said. “We’re seeing the hue and cry come from everywhere--businesses, parents, educators. The pendulum swung too far in the other direction.”

As it swings back, let’s hope kids like Tony can grab a ride.

*

Sandy Banks’ column runs on Tuesdays and Sundays. Her e-mail address is sandy.banks@latimes. com.