In the early days of public education, a course of study known as “industrial arts” was common in high schools across the country. These vocational classes included everything from mechanical drawing to automotive repairs, from furniture making to electrical wiring. The classes offered practical skill training primarily to two types of students: The male student who demonstrated a real interest and aptitude in an industrial art, or the male student assessed as a low achiever needing, and hopefully benefiting from, vocational training.

            For many years, freshmen students from the general school population were required to take a few semesters in one or more ‘shop’ classes. These students most likely would not transfer to an industrial arts curriculum, but they would have a chance to explore a ‘trade.’

            Most of the kids I knew in high school enjoyed the time spent in shop class. And what a novelty when during the ‘60s, girls could take wood shop and boys could take home economics. Equal opportunity at the shop class level had arrived. It was good for us, just as music and art were, but don’t get me started on those maligned enrichment classes.

            As public education became more intent on measuring and testing students and as Federal and State guidelines promoted and required more reporting on the academic achievement (think MCAS and PARCC) via ‘data,’ the financial burden of offering classes that were deemed less important could no longer be supported. A quick check on the evolution of achievement testing philosophies brought me to the website http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/87/Charting_Success.pdf, where I found the following statement: “In recent years, interest has spiked in data-driven decision making in education – that is, using various types of data, particularly quantitative assessment data, to inform a range of decisions in schools and classrooms (Marsh, Pane, & Hamilton, 2006). This is a natural result of technological changes, the advent of test-based accountability systems under No Child Left Behind, and the increased availability of quantitative data due to accountability reforms. The increased emphasis on using data is based on the belief that assessment data and other student performance data can be important levers for improved teaching and learning. Many schools, districts, and states have invested resources in tools designed to provide teachers, principals, and other key stakeholders with ready access to (and analysis of) information regarding student performance throughout the school year…

            However, the field has yet to produce reliable evidence regarding the relationship between data use and teacher or school effectiveness at raising student achievement…” Please don’t send me hate mail.

My point is that as public schools have been pushed to operate more like corporations, some educational considerations have gone out the window like industrial arts. It seems to me that in general public education, it’s a numbers game and as long as a certain percentage of students are at or above the line, the administrations of these schools have achieved their goal. I am not faulting the teachers or the administrators. I am saying that with tightening budgets and increasing demands to produce educational results that may pull the U.S.A. out of the academic doldrums, there isn’t room for Industrial Arts. More’s the pity.

Thankfully, vocational education has come out of the shadows. Institutions of ‘trade’ based education are no longer places where students are sent if they fail at ‘regular’ public school. Today, vocational schools provide a high level of technical training in a wide variety of subject matter from commercial food preparation to cosmetology, nursing, machine repair, electrical, plumbing, automotive, to facility management (to name a few) for both boys and girls. And unlike years gone by, kids graduating from vocational technical high schools may also pursue a four-year degree. Perfect!

We are fortunate to have great vocational technical schools within driving distance. But are we dissuading our kids from pursuing a career in the trades? Are we still telling our children not to get their hands dirty unless they absolutely have to? Presently, we can’t offer students in public schools a tiny taste of a ‘trade’ as once was the case. We’ve segregated the themes of learning.

Somewhere along the way as modern societies evolved, we lost the value we placed on people who could ‘do’ things and replaced it with people who could ‘think’ things. We’ve lost sight that the people that ‘do’ things also have to ‘think’ things. So we told our children to use their brains, not their brawns, and become MBA’s. Today MBA’s are a dime a dozen, struggling to find employment while a good carpenter is a rare find.

When I worked in the electrical industry, there was a full-court press on to enroll young people in apprentice programs across the nation. I was fortunate to meet many students studying the electrical trade and was encouraged that they saw a future in becoming master electricians or journeymen, or electrical engineers. These men and women were some of the most focused, intelligent, and driven people I’ve ever met.

During the mid-1990s, the IBEW (unionized) and IEC (non-union independent) tracked electrical apprentice enrollments. They were shocked at the steep decline in numbers. Projections were showing that in as little as ten years, the number of qualified electricians would be less than half of the pre-recession number. That might not mean anything to you unless you need an electrician, and when you do find one he or she is most likely not a spring chicken.

People in the trades that are worth their salt are exceptional for the variety of things they must know. They must be customer service and business oriented, while possessing the patience and understanding of a social worker or sometimes a marriage counselor. They have to be visionaries with a high degree of technical competency and academic training. In other words, they have to have a business suit and work shirt set of skills.

I’m not saying we should encourage our children to take vocational education over general public school curriculums. What I am saying is that it is a crying shame that students in general public education settings no longer get a chance to try areas of study that might one day prove to be their yellow brick road to success.

When all is said and done, I think if teachers could candidly speak their minds they would agree that less testing and more teaching would help not hurt our children. I think teachers might like to see some of the money invested in testing materials being plowed into teaching materials. I think teachers should have a seat at the decision-making table when it comes to allocating available funds. My guess is that if teachers were allowed to make more decisions – instead of government telling school boards “test, test, test” – our students would, in fact, be better educated overall. As taxpayers, we should be screaming “stop the madness!”

By Marilou Newell

“I’m running fast, and I’m running a lot right now,” said Sarabeth Morrell, an English teacher at Old Rochester Regional High School. Morrell is currently running 30 to 40 miles per week, training for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 2014.

“My personal goal is to run this fast enough to be able to qualify for Boston next spring,” said Morrell. Thus she’s training for speed. Morrell, who normally runs at nine to ten minutes per mile, hopes to bump her average down to seven to eight minutes per mile.

A runner for most of her life, Morrell is no stranger to the strenuous 26.2 miles of a marathon. Before she had kids, Morrell ran several marathons. It’s only now that her children are older that she again has the time to train – but this time, she’s running for a cause.

“I used to do it for myself and for my own athletic challenges,” explained Morrell, “but now it seemed like as I’m older … I wanted to combine my love of running with helping out an organization.”

That’s when Morrell decided to join the Homes for Our Troops team in the Marine Corps Marathon. This team raises money for Homes for Our Troops (HFOT), an organization that builds homes for post 9/11 veterans who have lost limbs in war.

“This organization is important because of the state of the world in which we live,” said Morrell sincerely, “We have veterans coming home with injuries who can no longer take care of their families.”

With her own husband being a Marine Corps veteran, Morrell feels blessed that her family hasn’t had to face the struggles of seriously injured veterans’ families. She felt she could help those who weren’t so lucky by supporting HFOT in the Marine Corps Marathon.

The HFOT team currently has 25 to 30 members, but they hope to reach 50 members. Eventually, the runners will begin training as a team. For now, they’re focused on individual training and fundraising.

The Marine Corps Marathon requires that runners involved with a charity bib raise at least $500 before registering. The HFOT team is a little more ambitious: they’ve set a goal of $100,000 for their team. Through the generosity and the determination of the runners and other donators, the team has raised nearly $18,000 so far. Each day, they make more progress.

This summer, the HFOT team will be running local fundraisers to reach their goal. In the meantime, they rely on the altruism of the community. For more information, please visit http://hfotmcm14.kintera.org.

By Renae Reints

One day, 10 year-old Emma Levasseur was watching television in her home in Rochester when she saw something that made her stop and think.

It was a commercial that came on about a school that was holding a shoe drive to collect new shoes and socks for millions of orphans around the globe that do not have any shoes.

Emma felt inspired to do something about it, so she gathered her paper, markers, and glue – determined to make a difference.

“I decided that I wanted to do [a shoe drive], so I made a poster the next morning,” said Emma. She put together information she gathered about the project and created a poster proposal of sorts to show to her mother, asking if she could contribute to the cause.

“Oh. Wow,” said Emma’s mom, Wendy Levasseur, when Emma approached her with the poster. Not sure how she would go about organizing a shoe drive, Wendy told Emma, “Why don’t we bring it to Ms. Griffin and see what she says?”

Ms. Griffin, Emma’s fourth-grade teacher at Rochester Memorial School, took one look at Emma’s brightly-colored poster and saw Emma’s determination.

“She came with a plan,” said Griffin. “She had an idea of what she wanted to do.”

RMS Principal Derek Medeiros gave the go ahead to allow Emma to place collection bins at school so her classmates and teachers could donate not only shoes but socks, too. On the morning of May 28, Emma announced the upcoming shoe drive to her peers, beginning by asking them if they knew how many orphans out there went without any shoes. Emma’s answer: 145 million.

Emma’s classmates responded to her shoe drive idea with enthusiasm, eager to rush out and buy new shoes and socks for an orphan in need.

In addition to the donation, Emma has asked that everyone who makes a shoe donation include a short note inside one of the shoes for the child who will receive them, so that they will know that they are thought of and cared about.

Emma’s gesture of goodwill stretched beyond just the scope of her school shoe drive. Wendy said Emma had an approaching birthday party back in late March, and asked her mother if it would be all right to ask her party guests to bring her pairs of shoes and socks for the shoe drive – in lieu of birthday presents.

Emma’s brother Aiden, a first-grader at RMS, has been an enthusiastic helper as well, helping to decorate large plastic donation bins for people to place the donated shoes and socks.

“As soon as he saw her do this,” said Wendy, “he said to me, ‘I want to do a book drive.’” Wendy added that young Aidan is always “trying to give his money away,” asking if he can send his savings to help cure cancer, among other things.

“I think it’s great,” said Mike Levasseur, Emma’s and Aidan’s father. “As a parent, you want your kids to be selfless at times, and to see this is just great.”

The organization that will be accepting the donated shoes and socks is Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls. It has already collected 2.75 million pairs of shoes and sent them to 76 different countries around the world. Buckner’s 2014 goal is to deliver its three-millionth pair of shoes by January 1, 2015.

As part of the process of organizing with Buckner, Emma had to submit her own personal goal and naturally, Emma aimed high.

Perhaps a little too high, in Wendy’s opinion, suggesting they bring it down from 250 to an attainable 50 or so pairs of shoes.

Emma humbly asks the community to contribute to the shoe drive and make a donation of a pair of shoes or socks with a note of encouragement to the orphan recipient. A drop box is available at the school in the main entrance vestibule during school hours.

The shoe drive kicks off on June 2 and will continue until the last day of school on June 18.

Buckner says the sizes most in need are sizes Youth 1-Adult 9.

Emma is also collecting monetary donations to help cover the cost of shipping the shoes to the humanitarian aid center in Dallas, Texas. It is her responsibility to send the shoes and postage can get pricey, depending on how many shoes she collects.

“This is a very generous community,” said Griffin. “If there’s ever a place to do it, it’s here in Rochester.”

And how will the orphans feel when they receive their new shoes?

“They’ll be happy,” said Emma. And, undoubtedly, so will Emma.

By Jean Perry