“Why can’t we learn the fun stuff first?” elementary students asked a teacher friend of mine. She said we make students go through a whole bunch of bookwork and paper exercises in lots of subjects — including science, math and languages — before they get to the “fun stuff,” meaning the practical applications.
Our Utah business leaders tell us our students are not prepared for the jobs they need them to fill. And while they keep proposing taxpayers pay more taxes for schools, maybe business ought to put their money and resources in our schools, rather than continue to spend money on studies recommending what taxpayers, educators and government should do.
So, this might just be a great time for business people to provide students experiences at learning the “fun stuff” in the workplace and then taking it back to the classroom where it all comes together. It’s not the same to have someone come and give a presentation to students about what takes place on a job. What helps students is to actually be there and experience the workplace.
Start those opportunities early in the child’s educational training. Schools could tie classwork learning with work-based learning; for example, three days of class work learning and two days of workplace learning. Then schoolwork makes sense and even becomes exciting. High school students then can see in an actual workplace just why it is they need to learn what they learn.
If students can observe, shadow, follow people as they do their jobs in the workplace, they can learn and begin to connect how the classwork makes sense in preparing for the future. Here is the reason you need to know the math, or the science, or the way to communicate clearly on the job.
And what about business groups committing to provide summer jobs and internships for high school students to get experience, to get excited about learning more, and maybe even to want more education. In the workplace, students learn more than just academics. They learn the importance of good work habits, problem-solving in real time and the ability to work in groups. Today’s high-performance workplace demands workers take initiative in solving problems. Taken to the next level, employers could prepare their own pool of skilled workers by offering paid internships and summer jobs to high school students who then could become their future workers.
Teachers could also be given paid sabbaticals to participate in a variety of workplaces to help them integrate what they are teaching in class to the world of work in today’s high-performance workplaces. In addition, schools could have workers from the business community teach in the classroom.
These ideas are not new. The federal government, with School to Work legislation in 1995, offered many of them. It never took hold in Utah because the business leadership was not involved. There is now a renewed awareness on the part of business leaders to invest in educating the new pool of workers sitting in today’s classrooms.
Maybe instead of spending their resources to conduct studies and lobby government policymakers, business could spend their money on internships, sabbaticals and summer jobs. They could take the initiative and get together with educators and share how businesses can tie in workplace learning with classwork learning. That investment may yield the greatest return for employers. Start doing the fun stuff.
Utah native John Florez served on the U.S. Senate Labor Committee and as Utah industrial commissioner. His White House appointments included deputy assistant secretary of labor and Commission on Hispanic Education member. Email: jdflorez@comcast.net