Being a parent means that eventually
you will have to talk careers with your children. Being a loving parent
means that you will have done your homework before that day comes. Dr.
Susan Quattrociocchi is the Director of the Northeast Tech Prep Consortium
and spends much of her time speaking to parents on how to prepare their
children for future employment. Her frank advice often confronts some of
our most dearly held preconceptions on preparing youth for work.
"When we were young, a Bachelor's
degree was an affordable, fail-safe investment in the future,"
explains Quattrociocchi. "Today, despite a robust economy, a college
education can be a high-cost, high-risk investment unless it includes a
variety of marketable skills." Her recommendations are that parents
take an active role in helping their children achieve these marketable
skills and deciding whether a university degree is the best way to achieve
the teen's career goals.
"First, start by realizing that
going to college should NOT be the goal; your child's happiness and
success should be the goal." Quattrociocchi encourages parents to
help design career and educational goals based on their child's passions.
"Today, college is just too pricey to be the place where kids plan
for the future. They need to arrive at college with a plan."
Switching majors lengthens the time needed to achieve a degree and reduces
the likelihood that your child will have the financial wherewithal to
graduate. By the time the student arrives at post-secondary education,
they should have a firm grasp of their career goals.
She recommends that parents discourage
their children from taking meaningless jobs during high school, but rather
look for employment that will provide skills and experience related to
their career goals. "Today's youth are employed mostly in dead-end
jobs where co-workers tend to be other teenagers or new immigrants."
The long-term costs of these jobs are monumental. The average working teen
spends four times as much time at work than they do on homework. This
means that often assignments are left incomplete, less challenging courses
are chosen, valuable volunteer work or internships are avoided and
extra-curricular activities are forgone.
Want more of Dr. Quattrociocchi's insights?
Check out her website (www.calltoparents.org/menu.htm).
...back to top
Last May, 130,000 grade 4, 7 and 10
students were tested to determine their skill level in literacy and
numeracy. The results to the 1999 Foundation Skills Assessment confirmed
the value and need for Applications of Mathematics.
The tests revealed that the students at
all three grade levels were weak in solving math problems. Only 9% of
grade 7 students and 5% of grade 10 students were found to be exceeding
expectations in numeracy, while as many as 28% of grade 7's and 24% of
grade 10's failed to meet numeracy expectations. It should be noted that
international testing of math skills (TIMSS) show that Canada scores above
the world average.
The suggested remedy was that educators
were urged to provide more real-life applications of math concepts for the
classroom. Teachers were encouraged to emphasize the importance of
numeracy in our lives. It is reassuring to note that these are the very
premises upon which Applications of Mathematics is based. AM advocates
viewing mathematics as numeracy and teaching it as a skill similar to
literacy.
...back to top
