Pros teach high-schoolers career options other than college

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

ARLINGTON — Jake Morgan handed 17-year-old Jacob Stetson the shotgun stick, a bright orange tool used for working on utility poles, and, with a firm jerk, showed him how to disconnect electricity during repairs.

Then Stetson tried on the heavy gloves used by Morgan and other Snohomish County PUD linemen. He tried to wrestle a nut off of a metal part, struggling through the thick fabric.

“It really slows you down,” said Stetson, a home-schooled student who lives near Kayak Point.
“You get used to it,” Morgan told him.

Not far away on the open lawn near the Arlington Municipal Airport, two teens held a fire hose, sending a powerful stream of water over a chainlink fence and onto the airport’s pavement. Firefighters from Arlington and North County Fire supervised.
“Don’t let go of it,” a firefighter warned, hurrying to wrangle the hose as one young man stepped back. “Never let go.”

Around the yard, there was a cement mixing truck, a long semi-truck with a blaring horn, a Community Transit bus, a UPS truck and several displays where teens could try jackhammering a concrete block or hammering at a wooden frame.

The Trade UP event in Arlington brought students together to listen to men and women talk about their jobs and options after high school. The program started about two and a half years ago and has grown, with more students and new presenters.

http://www.heraldnet.com/news/professionals-teach-high-schoolers-options-other-than-college/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=d62b7945ec-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-d62b7945ec-228635337

[Wounded Bear]

1. Not everybody needs to, or even should go to college...

to be a productive member of society. Much of the drive for education the past few years has been little more than advertising BS driven by the private college industry.

I'm all for trade schools and community colleges as pathways for High School grads to move forward in their lives and find out what they are best suited for. There should be plenty of publicly funded alternatives along that path, too.