Psychological Profiling

Based on the factual evidence to support the topic of psychological profiling, who is “fit” for Vo-tech, “In the past, I think that career technical education was for students who don’t do well in book work and need to learn hands-on” says Donald Jarvis, executive director of the Massachusetts Vocational Association. This statement says a lot, even though it is only one sentence; it is stating that Vo-tech is only for those that do not learn well through book work. However, that is wrong and should be changed because everyone learns at a different rate. Although, in some cases he is also right because everyone learns at a different pace and if you push them over their limits, they could either fail or succeed. If you push them too hard they could fail because of the stress levels, or due to all of the book work. Other times, they

could be pushed to the point where it sparks the brain to kick in, their learning improves, and they put out more effort than what they did before they were pushed. Then again, teachers cannot effectively teach students if they do not know the best way individual students learn. They often times give quizzes and other tests to ask what the learning style is of a student, and the schools should find this out when they are giving the math and reading assessment for submission into the school.
When proving the factors of psychological profiling of who is fit for Vo-tech, one opinion from Worcester Magazine made by Corlyn Voorhees states “In some ways, today’s Vo-tech students are attending two schools at once, learning in the traditional class room setting, while also keeping up in their chosen trade.” This opinion also helps to answer the subject that when people look at kids who sign up for a Vo-tech school, they have two different thoughts on the subject based on factual evidence. One is saying that Vo-tech students are smarter than students who attend regular schools, and others believe that they need to improve on their learning skills. These thoughts could be proved either right or wrong, depending on the way it is viewed. On one side, some would believe that the teaching style of Vo-tech schools is poor as it does not include as much academic learning as other schools do. However, Vo-tech schools are also believed to be more helpful to its students because it lets students who learn better through hands on activities to increase their academic capabilities. The effectiveness of Vo-tech schools is shown, as some were awarded a national bronze medal (US News, 2015). Vo-tech schools are also beneficial to its students because it prevents them from overwhelming stress, due to the smaller academic load of only four to five classes a day, as compared to the usual seven to eight classes a day in non-technical high schools. The stress load of students is also lessened because the amount of bookwork is lower than it is in other schools. This helps hands on students because their grades do not rely only on book work, which they may not perform well with.
Vo-tech schools can also be more challenging to students as some may perform better in academics than in a specific field which will prepare them for a job at the end of their four years.

For example, a student may excel in math or English, though may struggle in their shop class such as sheet metal or nurse tech. Therefore, Vo-tech schools can benefit its students by pushing them to challenge themselves unlike any non Vo-tech school could. Students are made to approach their academics from a view that is different than what they are used to, causing them to develop a different mindset and challenge themselves to learn in new way. Vo-tech schools will also benefit the student because it will prepare them for a job once they are finished high school, which is the ultimate goal of Vo-tech education. The student needing to look at their work in shop with a new perspective will better prepare them to work in the real world, and prevent them from needing to adapt to it at the degree to which they would need to if they had gone to a regular school. Overall, this new way of learning in technical high schools would benefit the student in the

end.
To conclude, Vo-tech schools can are beneficial to students that attend them as they must either develop a new mindset or enhance their already attained hands on skills. Vo-tech schools also prevent students from becoming overwhelmed with stress as it does have as many classes throughout the day, does not focus only on bookwork and allows them to be tested on hands on activities instead of strictly written tests. Aside from this, these schools will also push students to work harder because they must adapt to different learning styles and this can encourage them to push themselves to success.