What are some benefits of CTE courses?

Brain development related to 3-dimensional conceptualization. An understanding of and respect for the work millions of Americans do. Skills needed to begin a career in a vast number of fascinating and high-paying fields upon graduation. Skills to earn sufficient income to supplement loans/grants to actually complete a four-year college degree.

What Does Career/Tech Ed Have To Do With Learning?   According to research, technical courses positively impact literacy and traditional classroom learning. This is because the brain learns by DOING, and the more senses involved, the greater the retention. It is the active, as opposed to the passive, engagement in education that gives students the firmest grip on what they are learning. What About Kids' Hopes for the Future? Currently at best 70% of high school students actually graduate. This 30% drop-out rate reported by TIME Magazine April 17, 2006  is a national average researchers found more  realistic than a lower precent often reported. They reported that in some areas,  the dropout rate is close to 50%.    TIME also mentioned the Irvine Foundation study finding that almost 2/3 of all students felt they would do better academically if they understood how their coursework related to potential careers, plus 90% felt they wanted to go to college.   Even while the US Labor Department supports the US Department of Education and the National Governors Association in their goal of college for everyone, that Labor Department estimates that only 30-35% of 21st century jobs will require a 4-year college degree.    Even in districts where a large percentage of students begin college, approximately one-third return home without a degree (and unaware of and unprepared for  excellent, high-paying careers available in their regions).   Our goal for ALL children in this country is personal and professional success -- leading to personal awareness, happiness and good citizenship.

Dr. Frank R. Wilson THE HAND: HOW ITS USE SHPAES THE BRAIN, LANGUAGE, AND HUMAN CULTURE by Frank R. Wilson,  recently retired M.D. neuroscientist  at UCSF, lays out the physiological, biological, anthropological, and sociological evidence for how the  use of the hand has impacted our neurology, psychology and even linguistics. In essence, he confirms what parents and teachers already know - that when students "do," they learn better.   The development that occurs by engaging the hand and brain, and visually understanding and manipulating items in 3-dimensional space, leads to all the fields of engineering and related fields, such as civil (including land and highway surveying plus satellite imaging), heating and air conditioning, automobile, aircraft, structural, industrial, chemical, mechanical, and biomedical engineering.   By literally building something in a CTE class, a student gains extra connections in the cerebral cortex for visualizing or conceptualizing, thus enhancing future ability to create a new item or develop a new system. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, minorities represent approximately 90% of the 735,000 students, and only 50% graduate from high school.

Tools You Can Use

Download the prologue to "THE HAND" by Frank R. Wilson See Dr. Wilson's site for more "meditations" on the hand and human development Go to PBS to read the PBS News Hour interview with Frank R. Wilson, M.D.