The Choice is Yours! Why Must Vocational and Liberal Arts Education Be Antithetical Pairs?
Workers and Thinkers Unite!
Usually, I hear debates on whether vocational or liberal arts schools are better, people choose an either/or stance. That has always baffled me. Those against vocational schools point to the racist history of American schools tracking and pigeonholing racial minorities into trade schools. Opponents of liberal arts schools state that skills in this realm of education are, to put it kindly, superfluous because they do not get students prepared for the workforce.
Why not both? I am a proud public high school product of a great liberal arts education and I graduated as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and certified nurse’s aid (CNA). I was fully equipped to choose either or both for my university path or career. Why can we not give these choices to our grade school students? The choice should be theirs.
This Atlantic article is a good and balanced view of the debate. Where do you stand?
Career-Oriented Education vs. the Liberal Arts
Vanguard Teaching 
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