Re: high school program in homeland security

[Marilyn Langlois <langlois-rine@comcast.net>]

High school program in homeland security?!

Is this another urban myth like the one about a new college major in test
prep?

If this is real, it shows again the major flaw with our education system:
saying we have to prepare kids for jobs that are out there (accepting status
quo, following directions, being compliant), instead of teaching kids how to
participate in determining which jobs are actually needed.

peace,
Marilyn

> From: Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>
> Reply-To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
> Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:25:58 -0800
> To: North Dakota Study Group <ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com>, Code Pink
> <sfbaycodepinkdiscussion@lists.riseup.net>, CA Resisters
> <ca-resisters@interversity.org>
> Subject: [ca-resisters]
> 
> Maryland school develops nation's first high school homeland security
> program.
> 
> In a front-page story, USA Today (12/11, 1A, Hall) reports that the
> "first comprehensive high school homeland security program" in the
> U.S., at Maryland's Jappatowne High School, has "recently been
> attracting the attention of educators and school districts from as far
> away as California and Florida." The program is designed "to help kids
> land jobs in the growing anti-terrorism industry." Students taking the
> classes "have toured a Coast Guard command center, visited a county
> detection center, practiced emergency response in a fictional town
> called 'Joppaville' and heard an Iraqi-born speaker explain cultural
> differences between Americans and Middle Easterners." Some question
> whether the program will develop students who are open-minded about
> government policies, "given its goal of getting kids jobs with defense
> and homeland security contractors and the military." However, others
> "applaud the school for taking steps to prepare kids for one of the
> nation's expanding job markets and for connecting what they learn in
> school to what's happening in the real world."
> 
>         In a separate story on the classes, USA Today (12/11, Hall)
> adds, "Big government contractors such as Battelle and SAIC are working
> with the program, offering internships and the use of equipment and
> staff." Gerald Tirozzi, director of the National Association of
> Secondary School Principals, praised the program as "new and
> innovative,"and said that it prepares students for jobs "that will
> exist in vast quantities for years to come."
> 
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