Preparing Students for the Work Field

In my last couple of visits to high schools it has occurred to me that tech teachers are some of the few teachers that have the most vast range of teaching responsibilities. In teaching pre-engineering classes tech teachers try to help prepare students for college. They promote problem-solving, engineering skills, mathematics, physics and other collegiate level work. On the other hand, a welding teacher or auto shop teacher has to focus on preparing students to enter the work field upon graduation.

These two tasks can sometimes be far removed from one another. So how does one find the balance when, inevitably, there will be students who want to go to college in some "work field" classes and there will be some people who prefer to go straight into the field in some "collegiate engineering" classes. It's a question of not only teaching implications, but of moral implications as well.

I think that the solution lies in approaching every problem from two perspectives at the same time. Here at BYU I had a math professor who always labeled his lectures with two parts, the "mechanic's point of view" and "the engineer's point of view". The first point of view was an expository on what knowledge would be required if you merely needed to fix a part; the latter being a point of view exposing the knowledge that would be required if you needed to design the part. This juxtaposition always left me wanting to be more like the engineer, but allowed me to feel capable, like the mechanic. I think this is a viable strategy in tech classes.

I think that using the mechanic vs. engineer point of view helps us both prepare students for the workforce while also pointing students to the virtues of higher education.