Hearing the call for more exposure to basic career prep, educators are looking at instituting a survey course at Middletown High teaching the ins and outs of carpentry, plumbing, home economics and other essentials.
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CONTACT: Matt Sheley at (401) 842-6543 or msheley@middletownri.com
GETTING “BACK TO BASICS” IN MIDDLETOWN SCHOOLS
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (JANUARY 26, 2021) – Not too long ago, the thinking in educational circles was to drive every student towards college, whether they were ready or not.
Today, most educators, parents and politicians acknowledge this mindset was misplaced, especially when horror stories emerge like the one about a hairdresser who was $200,000 plus in debt from student loans with a degree she had no use for.
Looking to provide a more complete, well rounded educational experience, a group of local educators are meeting to see how to bring a survey course back to Middletown High that would focus on the trades and home economics.
That way, Superintendent Rosemarie K. Kraeger said every student at the Valley Road school could get some exposure to the basics of carpentry and plumbing to food prep, balancing a checkbook and darning a sock.
“We don’t want to replicate what is going on down at Rogers (High School in Newport) or our other career techs, but the pendulum has swung,” Kraeger said during a recent Town Council meeting. “We do not have carpentry anymore. We do not have machinery, we do not have home economics.”
“What we need to do and we’re working with our high school principal and Dr. (Barbara) VonVillas is looking at a course that would bring back the trades in terms of a survey course, so all of our students could be introduced to a survey course that would talk about plumbing, electrical careers. Carpentry, that type of thing.”
If successful, Kraeger said the aim was to use grant money and federal dollars to pick up the tab for the new course, not local tax dollars. This is a model the School Department employs whenever possible to maximize local revenues and bring more opportunities to students.
Based on the perspective of Councilwoman VonVillas, all the new course needs is a classroom and a teacher. VonVillas is a lifelong educator who has 35 years of experience as a public school teacher and administrator in three states, including seven years as a superintendent of schools. Today, she works as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol in addition to her time on the council.
“I believe this discussion started because (Kraeger) were concerned about the instruction and how it seemed to be aimed at the career programs, in effect eliminating the possibility of things that promote the trades,” VonVillas said.
Principal Jeff Heath said the survey course would be helpful for any student of Middletown High, particularly freshmen and sophomores. Heath noted the state provides funding for approved career pathways, but that does not include career exploration, something he felt was “essential” to the decision making process of students.
“The course would emphasize guest speakers, experiential learning and site visits to local organizations,” Heath said. “These opportunities not only would help students to determine what careers may or may not interest them, but they would also expose students to the wide array of local career opportunities on and around Aquidneck Island.
“We're hoping to establish relationships with businesses entities that specifically lie in the construction, business, and hospitality/leisure areas. While we have begun to lay out these partnerships we're excited to continue our outreach to local area businesses interested in sharing their knowledge.”
A Dec. 31, 2021 story in “The Washington Post” showed Middletown is a long way from the only place talking about bringing back instruction in the trades.
The piece “Long disparaged, education for skilled trades is making a comeback” explained how trades are on the rise from Pennsylvania to Utah and everywhere in between.
The story detailed how a recent survey showed the number of high school students considering a four-year college degree dropped from 71 percent prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to 48 percent now.
It also noted how careers where the labor supply is particularly short like construction, transportation and logistics have seen their pay rise significantly in the past few years. That’s attractive, the piece indicated, to young adults looking to get going on their careers and making money immediately.
Middletown High already offers several acclaimed career track programs through Project Lead The Way. Among those include biomedical, pre-engineering and computer science. For more, visit https://www.mpsri.net/o/mhs/page/pathway-programs online.
Kraeger and VonVillas said the survey course wouldn’t take away from the quality career track education offered at Middletown High, but open new options.
Currently, the Middletown schools have 53 students enrolled in out of district career and technical programs as well as 18 part-time students. The district is expected to pay close to $858,000 in tuition to those programs, including the Newport Area Career and Technical Center at Rogers High School in Newport.
“Doing a survey course, I appreciate Dr. VonVillas bringing this to our attention,” Kraeger said. “As I’ve said, the pendulum has swung…It would be an introduction for every student.”
“I think it’s great,” council President Paul M. Rodrigues said. “The bio-med and pre-engineering, that’s great, but I think we’re just targeting certain careers and not everybody is meant to do that. Most kids probably won’t do that.”
Kraeger said a natural outgrowth would return to Middletown’s agricultural roots.
“The next logical one for us because we have that resource of the greenhouse would be an agricultural program,” Kraeger said. “A P-Tech.”
“I would come teach it for free,” Rodrigues said.
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