Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Forgotten Half/Curriculum

What were you thinking when you read the title of this chapter? “The Forgotten Half? What’s that?” Or “I already know this answer... the curriculum is designed for all students.”  Unfortunately, there is a group of students in the United States who have been referred to as forgotten for nearly twenty years. This same group of students is not inspired to pursue higher education, nor responds to the traditional curriculum being taught in schools. In order to prepare us to professionally teach in the near future, we need to understand the students who make up the forgotten half, the problems with curriculum in schools, and what we can do as teachers to help these young people use their talents to the best of their abilities.

Who Are They?
A two-year study took place in 1988 by the William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family, and Citizenship. This study focused on the then 20-million non-college bound youth in our country, dubbed ‘The Forgotten Half.’ These were, and still are, the young people who, statistically, fill many types of service roles and essentially maintain the function of our nation’s economy. There are several reasons students fall into the forgotten half category. According to Dr. Dwight Allen in his online lecture on this topic, poverty is one of the most obvious reasons, but it is not limited to simply financial poverty which first comes to mind. The majority also have poverty of aspiration, poverty of decision-making skills, and lack a support system which stretches beyond their structured school day. These students are also dealing with substance abuse, institutionalized sexism and racism, and negative role models.

The Original Report
The original WTG Foundation report suggested our school system was certainly not preparing this particular group of students for the school-to-work transition. As a result of the WTG Foundation Commission’s report, The U.S. Secretary of Labor created the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) in 1991. SCANS’ mission was to define the necessary functional and enabling skills that society must provide to every child by the age of 16. The products of the research were issued in a report titled “What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000.” The report identified five competencies and foundation skills necessary to achieve those competencies. They included the following:


 * 1)  Resources (identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources)
 * 2) Interpersonal (works with others)
 * 3)  Information (acquires and uses information)
 * 4)  Systems (understands complex inter-relationships)
 * 5)  Technology (works with a variety of technology).

Employability
In essence, these are employability skills. As noted by Overtoom in a recent ERIC digest article, “employability skills are defined as transferable core skill groups that represent essential functional and enabling knowledge, skills, and attitudes required by the 21st century workplace.” They are necessary for career success at all levels of employment and for all levels of education. Every person needs to develop these skills to ensure a productive place in society, whether pursuing higher education or not. Too many students leave their formal education inadequately prepared, academically and vocationally, for a lifetime of sustained working and learning.

The Follow-Up Report
The Forgotten Half Revisited, a follow-up report presented ten years after the original, revealed the majority of students leave school without a solid base of academic and SCANS skills that will enable them to succeed in postsecondary occupational or academic education. The same types of results were demonstrated in this report as in the WTG Foundation study. A survey conducted for this publication determined an overall negative trend for this segment of young people with the following findings: Almost half of all Americans and two-thirds of employers do not believe a high school diploma is a guarantee that a student has learned the basics. Six of ten Americans say academic standards are too low in their children’s schools. Three-fourths of all Americans say that drugs and violence are serious problems in their schools.

Additional Problems
Along with drugs and violence, our schools and students face additional serious problems. The No Child Left Behind initiatives in high school are focused on a pre-college curriculum with federal money virtually eliminated from vocational education. Research shows 90% of California ninth and tenth graders would be more motivated by classes relevant to their future careers. Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, is requesting $50 million for this year’s budget in new funds for high school vocational education programs. According to a recent TIME magazine article, a school district near Indianapolis will continue to support the Blue River vocational school, where more than 300 students spend afternoons learning different trades, such as marketing, auto repair, and nursing (Thornburgh, 2006). These are examples of society recognizing how important it is that all students need to develop applicable skill sets for their future, along with the pre-college curriculum already working for the half of students pursuing higher education.

What Educators Can Do
What can we do, as future educators, to make sure the forgotten half is not forgotten in our classrooms? Throughout the twentieth century, national commissions on vocational education repeatedly urged stronger connections to the academic curriculum (Grubb, 1995b). As teachers, we need to develop ways to integrate curriculum to increase student achievement. This will require us to move away from standard, familiar instructional techniques. Educational objectives need to be clearly defined and both academic and industry skill standards need to direct the learning. Integrated learning can offer students a deeper understanding when ‘learning by doing’ is adopted as a dominant practice.

Not only do we need to be creative and thoughtful regarding our teaching strategies, we are responsible for providing personal support to our students. How can we expect many of our students to learn and keep up with others when they do not have the same support systems outside of school? We also need to make sure we are helping students as they encounter problems, rather than when they are too far behind to catch up, referred to as “real-time remediation”. Although it can be difficult, teachers need to effectively encourage group work and team-building activities in the classroom.

Conclusion
The curriculum being taught in schools is mainly focused on the student population seeking post-secondary education. Although that is most likely the type of education you and I have received, we cannot forget, or be oblivious to the different backgrounds, economic situations, family lives, and attitudes we will be faced with in each one of our students. Our job is to reach out to these young minds each day, regardless of their post-secondary plans, and do everything we can to prepare them for life.

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