The talk turned to the urban poor. In particular, how they might
be liberated from the ill effects of an unnatural meritocracy. All
agreed that education was key. Higher education: more, better,
costlier. As for how to the save the education system, our
progressive, urbane guests were not so sure.
Besides, this was a party. Who wants to be ants at a
picnic? Better to talk about how the nonprofit where one works has
established new, progressive programs for poor, inner-city students
— arts programs, mainly.
Here is where my desire to get along with my fiancée’s
friends is trumped by my compulsion to set the world straight, and
I open my big mouth.
Sure, you can take one or two kids from each inner-city
school and put them in some feel-good arts programs. Then, when
they graduate high school, they can try to find work making origami
and sidewalk murals for AT&T and Chrysler.
That is, if they graduate. In St. Louis’ public schools,
only half of students do.
My solution, received with the usual jeers and yawns of
approval, was a miracle of understatement: poor teens need to learn
a trade, and to hell with everything else. Okay, not
everything else. They still need to learn the three Rs,
and perhaps a bit of history. But in this one case, at least, we
should not be ashamed to emulate the European education system. In
Poland,
where I lived for a time, about 26 percent of students went to
college preparatory schools. That seemed
about right to me. Another 68 percent went to trade or vocational
high schools where they might learn anything from hairstyling to
teaching, music to plumbing. Unlike their suburban American
counterparts, who, at 18, begin four years of partying, sleeping in
and sleeping around, many of these Poles were busy beginning their
adult work lives.
Here in St. Louis, of the 13 public high schools, there
are but two even marginally dedicated to vocational training, and
both were mandated by the courts. On the other hand, there are many
schools dedicated to performance art, the legal profession, and
college prep. One example is Metro Academic & Classical
High School, “a school with the tradition of nurturing and
developing the college bound, self-motivated student.” So how many
students from Metro (or any of the public schools) graduate from
college? The spokesman for St. Louis Public Schools had no idea.
Needless to say, if the numbers were good, the district would be
shouting them from the rooftops, not pretending they didn’t
exist.
BUT OUR URBAN school boards remain convinced that the only
way to end urban poverty is for inner-city students to go on to a
liberal arts college. Instead of putting a slide rule or a
soldering iron in his hand, the teacher hands him a Maya Angelou
novel. No wonder he drops out sophomore year. Who could blame
him?
How much better if the St. Louis Public Schools followed
the example of rural school districts and offered more vocational
programs where you learned how to repair a carburetor, or, like the
students across town at the Construction Careers
Center, how to build an eco-friendly
house. CCC is the first charter high
school for construction in the nation. Because the city board of
education has little interest in vocational schooling, CCC was
instead founded by the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis
and the local construction industry. When students graduate, many
enter a building trades apprenticeship program.
What’s more, CCC scored the fourth highest of the 13 St.
Louis public high schools in advanced math, outperforming all
regular high schools and four magnet schools. The website says 98
percent of graduating students are either working or attending
college. About 30 percent enter the construction
industry.
City educators, however, consider vocational education
akin to admitting defeat. They still hold on to the idea that every
student should go to college, and don’t seem to mind that
only six percent of low-income students earn a Bachelor’s
degree by the time they are twenty-four. Even if
you are one of the lucky six percent, who’s to say your expensive
bachelor’s degree will help you get the job you will need to pay
off your massive student loan debt? (Average salary for a
college-educated reporter: $31,000. Average salary for a plumber:
$50,000.)
You would think with all the quasi-socialists on urban
school boards, members would be more worker friendly. In my day,
socialists used to hold scholars in contempt, while glorifying the
proletariat.
I never thought I’d say this, but I miss those
days.
