Remaking Education...do we need to do it?

So I saw this article recently in the Washington Post about how Governor McAuliffe in Virginia has proposed a potentially radical plan to state board of education.  Essentially he's looking to allow students more opportunities to become prepared for the workforce and more opportunities at earning college credit.  It's an interesting take, one that doesn't seem that odd actually if you're in your mid-30s or older to be honest I think but it brings up a big no-no word in education; tracking.  Yes the dreaded tracking which of course brings up images of scenes from Waiting for Superman.

Now I know I'm not really addressing the merits of tracking and data and all those lovely things that keep teachers up at night.  But the plan does essentially put students onto two different tracks if you will, the workforce or university.  Which if we're honest as teachers, is kind of the point for us.  We talk about molding the minds of tomorrow, but what we're really hoping for is that the kids that we teach can grow up and find their role and niche in the universe and be happy, productive and all that jazz.  And while we'd love to send students to the Ivy League, that's not going to happen with the vast majority of our students (sorry if any former students read that.  You can totally make it to Princeton or Harvard if you want, its just those couple of students that sit by you, you know the ones.  They may not make it).  And that's totally fine.  I don't need someone with a degree from Cornell when my transmission craps out, or when the HVAC unit stops pumping out hot air in the middle of winter.  Most students have a decent clue about what they want to do by the time they're 15-16 years old.  Why should I force kids to take trigonometry or chemistry if they want to go into the workforce and into jobs where that's not necessary.  Guess how many times I've used cosine, sine, or tangent since high school?  Yeah that's right, a whopping zero times, and in all likelihood, you haven't either.  And I pick on math but I kind of like this plan by Gov. McAuliffe.  Two core years, and then let students decide their course from there.  I swear that we had several students when I was in high school that spent at least half the day taking classes for the more technical skills they'd need because they weren't sure they could afford, or more importantly, even wanted to go to college.  I'll bet that a student that is choosing courses because they know it this could be useful for them in the immediate future is going to be far more serious and engaged about the material than a senior being forced to take world history for the second time to check the box and say they did it.

It goes to the TED Talk spoke of last time by John Green, comparing learning to cartography.  Shouldn't we hope that for all of our students.   I know many out there pull out all the stops to make class fun, interesting, engaging, relevant, etc.  But even we can admit that for some (especially at the secondary level) it's checking a box for these kids.  If I have a student that wants nothing more than to grow up working on a farm and would be happy if they never have to leave the state in their lifetimes; why do I need to force feed them world history.  Is learning about the world important, absolutely.  But not everyone thinks it's as important as I do.  Why not put some of the power and responsibility on these young men and women to make the best decision for themselves.  Isn't that what we complain about anyway, that these darn kids are freeloaders and don't work hard, and won't get off our lawn.  How about instead of just pushing them through a obstacle course they don't want to do, we let them have some say.  Maybe this isn't such a radical idea after all.