ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Academic vs. Vocational Education

Updated on January 25, 2012

Check out my new book:

I just published my first book. If you click the link below, it will take you to a short hub that provides all of the details, including links to where it can be purchased:

A Song About Working With Your Hands

Who's Smarter, A Mechanic or a History Teacher?

What our society calls academics – reading, writing, math, etc. – always came fairly easily for me. I was reading little books before pre-school, and my parents still tell stories of me playing blackjack when I was four years old. School, therefore, was not a big problem, but then, in junior high school, I found myself in a woodshop class. For the first time, there was a distinct possibility that I might fail. For while academics came easily, doing anything with my hands – building, fixing, drawing, etc. – was always a struggle. (On my kindergarten “report card,” the only area marked for needs improvement was “cutting with scissors.”) A gene must have skipped a generation because my dad is an engineer who always seemed to be able to draw, fix, or build just about anything. When trying to fix or create anything with my hands, my mind cannot even visualize how things are supposed to be put together. It’s like my brain is just not wired that way.

Fortunately for me, I got some help in wood shop. There was a student in the class who I kind of knew who was able to help me out with some of the more complicated parts of building our little class projects (which for me, was every part). I was not merely a leech, however, because he happened to sit next to me in Biology class. In return for his carpentry skills, I gave him some, shall we call it, “aid” in getting through. So discounting the ethics of our behavior, this whole experience raises a simple question for me. Which of the two of us was smarter? I suspect that most people have been trained to say that I was, indicating an educational bias favoring academic over technical intelligence.

When I was getting a teaching credential, teachers often criticized an “old-fashioned” concept called “tracking.” Tracking referred to the practice of placing students on different academic paths at the beginning of high school. Some would be placed on the college prep track and would take classes necessary to enter four-year universities. Others would take more technical, “vocational” courses that might prepare them for future trade schools or for immediately entering the world of work. This practice was, and still is, criticized for numerous reasons. First, some saw this as a form of labeling. If a student was placed on the vocational track as a freshman, the non-technical academic expectations for that student – from teachers, parents, and the students themselves – would be lowered, and the result would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Students would tend to meet these lowered expectations, and they would be “cursed” to a life performing lower status jobs. Some worried that stereotyping based on race and social class might also determine the track into which a student was placed. Poorer students and ethnic minority groups, either because of the bias of educators or because these students struggled academically in grammar school due to difficult circumstances, would tend to be placed on the vocational track. This would then become a system for maintaining the social and economic inequalities in American society. Others might argue that freshmen in high school are too young to be placed into what is essentially a “major.” In high school, everyone should have an equal chance to explore different fields and find out where their skills and interests lie.

While I understand and sympathize with these anti-tracking arguments, I can’t help thinking that some of this hostility is based on two flawed assumptions. First, there is the bias mentioned earlier toward academic education. For some reason, a person skilled at working with their head is viewed as smarter than one talented with their hands. Some of this bias is the result of living in an increasingly industrial, commercial, technology driven society in which the high status jobs require more mental than physical labor. Still, there will always be a need for people who can fix cars, construct buildings, do electrical work, and repair broken plumbing. Without people doing these things, someone like me would be screwed. I would also be screwed, by the way, if my intelligence level was calculated on the basis of my technical skills. So why do we pass judgment on those who struggle in a History class but thrive when building or fixing things? After all, in many cases, the person who runs his or her own business performing technical tasks makes more money than a college History teacher like myself. So who’s smarter now?

Anti-tracking arguments are also based on the assumption that all students should be fit into the same mold. Some people, for whatever reason, are not going to thrive at a four-year university. Some will not even be able to make it in a college prep high school program. If I was forced to pursue a technical degree of some kind because it was the only path available, there is a good chance that I would not make it as well. By trying to turn everyone into a future college graduate, high schools may be losing a lot of kids who might have thrived taking more technical courses. Sure, it is possible that fourteen-year-olds may not be quite ready to choose a career path. It is also possible that teachers will consciously or unconsciously steer certain people to a career path that they (the teachers) view as lower status. Students may also choose at this young age to follow a path that seems easier. Still, when I think about this issue, it always comes back to a simple question: What is better, a large number of high school dropouts who failed in an attempt to follow the college prep track, or a larger number of high school graduates who made it because vocational programs were made available? A technical degree, after all, is much better than no degree. Plus, if at some point a person goes back to school to pursue the college path, society can easily applaud these efforts, provide necessary resources, and not mock them for being an adult in high school or give them a big, “I told you so.” Adult education institutions - and my favorite places, community colleges - must be kept strong so that people can always go back for an educational “do-over.” If nothing else, this might help me keep my highly non-technical job of talking all day long.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)