There is No K in Vocational
But there is in Knowledge
The editors probably thought it was kind of a cute twist on words, sort of like, “vocational kids can’t spell anyway?” Not cute.
I am a huge fan of skills-based training, and of helping students achieve their highest and most desired potential. That vocational programs in some Massachusetts towns, according to the Globe, are run by elitist admissions teams is unfortunate. But you could make the argument that students who are more likely to perform well in a vocational school setting should be able to demonstrate their acumen.
There’s a bigger issue, however, which I addressed in a piece I wrote a few years ago about college or career not being an either/or choice. It has to do with what college was originally intended to do, which was to educate and train up a generation of citizens who could lead the nation in positions of authority in business, civic, politics, teaching and yes, in the very early days, religious life.
Historically, the canon of knowledge students were expected to master included history, through original works, as well as learning through the great leaders of all time, other nations and civilizations and their origins, conflicts and ways of life. Typical coursework also included verbal debate; the who, what, and why of the material. College was to build on primary and secondary education, to help students reach the next zone of proximal development that would train their minds for all manner of challenges, turn them into strong thinkers, and communicators, and prepare them for lives as everything from lawyers to artisans, and as a consequence to better manage the affairs of their own generation.
The Morrill Land Grant College Act shook that up a bit, and established new public universities that, as a condition of getting federal land, provided courses of learning that included engineering, agriculture and a catch all called “mechanic arts” to prepare students for the workforce. These students had the best of both worlds — core knowledge and workforce preparation.
Here’s an idea. As we open up new pathways to students to learn trades and skills and support industry and human needs at all levels, we could offer and expose to a renewed core canon of history, literature and the arts those we rely on for the most important of work — the “skilled labor” fields, and prepare more of them to be leaders in public life! I’d much prefer my friend, the contractor, or electrician to be representing me in Congress.
The acrimony in politics today, which is spilling over to the work world in many ways, exists in part precisely because our college graduates have such little grounding in the experience of generations. We’ve avoided steeping anyone who goes through school or career training these days in an understanding of how important civic society is in managing constructive change, dialogue and in disagreement. It leads recent generations to think and act as if we are the only people to have ever encountered dramatic upheavals, to have challenging public leaders, to encounter unpleasantness.
History teaches the most valuable of lessons, for these reasons and more. And books, particularly those rooted in real life experience or history, introduce you to situations, stories and encounters that you may someday experience. Books are natural teachers and mentors, particularly those written by people who know their subject well.
One final word if you’ll allow me in this already lengthy reflection. There is often a commentary by college educated people who believe skills and vocational training are the penultimate for those who shouldn’t or don’t want to go to college (as if they even know them), that plumbers don’t have to learn philosophy.
I disagree. They may in fact make the best philosophers. Let people decide their path, and give them access to all the pathways — and the knowledge they need — from the earliest of ages.
And please, let’s not go all-in on the word “voke.”
