1 IDEATE Thomas Pitre

Assignment #3

IDEATE

Background.

Step 1. See attached mind map (Pg. 4)

As it turns out, the executive summary of the Study of School-To-Work Initiatives of October 1996 <

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/SER/SchoolWork/study3.html > based on The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 covers many of the items I

touched on in my mind map. I read the summary after I completed about 90% if my map.

I began this exercise with mind map, because it is a graphic, and it may be “open” and flexible enough to be used as a tool to further explore the

solutions and ideas I included.

I did not mention the role of the family, spouse, close friends, etc., in my map. The family has a critical part in a child’s school studies and the

eventual transition to the world of work. It is never too early to begin to prepare a child for either of these pursuits. My parents taught me by

example, as they both worked all their life, including post retirement.

The family is the physical network, while the virtual networks available today, and include: bulletin boards, BLOGs, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.

Exchanging information and posting questions to various, RELIABLE and SECURE sites might help, and might be more useful for grads in technical

fields.

What did I do, personally after I graduated college? Because I worked my first job at thirteen I was prepared. I worked as a stock clerk in a

woman’s and children’s clothing store. I wore a charcoal grey suit to the interview with Mr. Grace. The year was 1954. I can still see the racks of

clothes and the freight lift in the sidewalk that brought the boxes of goods to the workspace in the basement.

Step 2.

The whole set of 50 (or more) initial ideas: 1. Potential employers of graduates have a contract with the school/student to hire the student upon graduation and with an acceptable and

agreed-upon grade in the relevant courses.

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2. Make sure the area employers understand that they benefit by having good, trained employees. 3. Ditto for the community that reap the benefits of a trained workforce. 4. The school can tout the number of working grads 5. The school can tout the service they provide of work skills training. 6. The school benefits by reputation for services. 7. A disillusioned and dissatisfied student could protest to the school. 8. Unhappy students could write editorials or BLOG about lack of job training and work prep. 9. Unions could benefit from good workers and they should buy in. 10. Job training could begin as early as elementary school. 11. Integrate training into college/high school curricula. 12. Get guest speakers. 13. Put neural implant in brain of student. 14. Use psychoactive drugs to boost student confidence. 15. Recruit volunteers from grad students/peers. 16. Form small groups to role play job interviews and resume writing. 17. Use potential student counselors, psych majors, sociology students as coaches and mentors. 18. Get SCORE volunteers. 19. Get churches, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, Scouts, Rotarians, etc. to work with those nearing graduation. 20. Students can get college credit for help. 21. Get adult volunteers from the community at large. 22. Reach out to other schools…especially vocational schools to see how they are doing it. 23. The stakeholder could form his own group. 24. The school could hire an outside firm just for this purpose. 25. The student could hire his own work counselor/coach. 26. Only students with good grades can get job assistance. 27. All students are hypnotized upon graduation. 28. India and Pakistan come to US to recruit workers. 29. China needs more teachers, so they offer a bonus to new grads. 30. The Marines need a few good men and women so they offer 40k to all grads to join the military. 31. All children over 12 must work for one year before high school. 32. All children must work for the community for one year after high school. 33. Aptitude and skill testing for three months during the summer before college.

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34. Parents must pledge to work with their children. 35. Grandparents must pledge help. 36. No TV, cell phones, or gaming for anyone that does not get a summer job during high school. 37. The government will administer all training for work prep for all children over sixteen. 38. We send all high school grads to China, Korea, etc. to work for one year. 39. The last year of college is only 25% of normal tuition if the student works. 40. Tuition is less for the last year of school if the student undergoes work and skills training and attitude adjustment. ;-) 41. Grad students could teach the class for $ and/or credit 42. Unions could provide generic work prep classes 43. Schools could buy a subscription to the d.school team to provide yearly updates, suggestions and training to graduating students. 44. A corps of 25,000 students in this class could provide detailed and granular advice to thousands of students in a few weeks, and this could be

integrated into the Stanford program for credit or possible publication. 45. The heavens would open and all graduates would receive divine help while they slept. 46. A home study program could be integrated into the curricula, with occasional tests of knowledge administered by the school counselors or

teachers 47. Distance learning packages would be made available to all students in the form of a MOOC, including video, live chats, bulletin boards, message

boards, etc. 48. The school could provide live on line help via the web and telephone 24x7x365, free, to all paid last year students. 49. India and Pakistan could provide live on line help as well. 50. Work has been declared null and void. Everyone in the US gets a stipend from the government for the newly discovered minerals under our

feet. These minerals are a carbon-free source of power and the world is beating at our doors to buy and trade for this new element. 51. Call President Obama and ask if he would mention this problem at the next address to the nation: Switchboard: 202-456-1414. 52. Run a statewide contest for the best solution to the problem, offering a large, cash prize. 53. Hire a number of well- known actors to do television spots. Include Jeff Bridges, Billy Bob Thorton and Rita Moreno, among others. 54. Rent a dirigible to fly over the college campus begging for free and unrestricted counseling for all students.

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2. The three selected ideas with a short paragraph explaining each a bit more.

Three, selected ideas:

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1. The student should make an effort to seek out her own job counseling, either though the school, her peers, or the community.

2. The school should provide job counseling and work preparation from the start, integrating it into the curriculum.

3. Job training and preparation should begin early in a student’s education. As early as elementary school, if possible. To lighten the load on

the teachers, businesses, unions, volunteers, churches, etc., could take up some of the load. All the materials are already there, including

guides, handouts, videos, etc. No need to design or make new material, but allowances should be left for improvement by putting materials

in three ring binders. (This is a metaphor.)

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