high academic standards

An Avenue to High Academic Standards

In her article “An Avenue to High Academic Standards,” Lynn Olson argues that “A prominent misconception surrounding school-to-work is that it downplays intellectual achievement,” and that “school-to-work can encourage young people to pursue education and training beyond high school.” A school-to-work program enables a student to go to a regular school and attend classes just like any other regular high school student, but they are also required to attend additional training in a “real world” work environment. School-to-work programs are achievable and attractive to students whose schools are participating and Lynn Olson does a good job of arguing her point.

“High-quality school-to-work programs combine learning in school and in the workplace.” This makes sense, without efficient entrusted employers who are willing to participate in the school-to-work program, the support of the school would be undermined and the system would most likely fail. The school-to-work program enables students to get hands on experience within the workplace while at the same time giving them a reprieve from their textbooks.

Lynn Olson argues that there have been studies that suggest “school-to-work can help address one of the greatest problems in education: motivation.” This makes sense and I believe this to be a very accurate and significant argument. Without motivation students will find it very difficult to get things started and to complete their tasks. This not only happens with academics but in life general. Lynn Olson argues, “A majority of American teenagers in national surveys describe their education as “boring.” I can attest to that. Both in high school, and in college I have had to learn about subjects that I can careless about and because of this the motivation factor was extremely low. “Although they think it’s important to graduate, they don’t think that doing well in school matters.” I tend to agree with this. I believe that graduation is the key factor, and this is the reason why kids go to school. School-to-work programs can alleviate some of the boredom that studying out of textbooks can have.

“School-to-work can help young people answer the question, “Why do I have to learn this?” Lynn Olson claims that research from various corporations, and research companies argue that “school-to-work activities can slash boredom and re-engage students in schooling.” Once again this makes sense. Give students the option to get out of the classroom and into the workforce as interns, gives them the opportunity to have a better understanding of the “real world” outside of the textbook and classroom environment.