Practical Solutions Schools Classes to Teach Life

About a practical proposal to improve education by teaching classes for actual jobs.

SOLUTIONS--PRACTICAL PROPOSALS AND BRAND-NEW APPROACHES TO A MULTITUDE OF PROBLEMS

THE SCHOOLS

Making a Living Class

I am an 18-year-old upper-middle-class male who recently graduated from high school. Having been warned repeatedly about the "real world," I was still not prepared for the shock of postschool life. I soon realized that even though I had undergone 13 years of public school education, I was still almost totally ignorant of the basic information of life, such as getting a job, getting an apartment, and using banks and credit cards. In all my 13 years of schooling, I don't recall these subjects ever coming up. What was worse than not knowing how to try out for a job was not knowing what jobs could be tried out for. I remember a 10-week "guidance" course, when I was 15, but the misguided teacher did nothing but give us short quizzes and pamphlets about different professions.

What I propose is that a class be given in high school in which each day a different person comes in and speaks to the class about his or her job. A different job each day, from all levels of society. That would end up being 180 jobs learned about in a year--assuming that no time was wasted on short quizzes and tests.

Bill Tucker

Canoga Park, Calif.