GA Teachers, are you ready to hold the hands of career-deciding ninth graders?

by BJ Benson | 2.6.12

If you haven’t already heard, Georgia is a skip away from starting a new program that will require ninth graders to select a career path and follow a schedule focusing on that future. Read about it here.

I’ll admit it—ideally, this sounds like a pretty good plan for the students. But have we taken enough time to consider the teachers? Teachers may be required to act as career advisors to about a dozen students each. While as a parent it sounds like a sweet deal to have someone hold the hand of my future high schooler, I want to know the real effects of this new program on the educators of our youth.

All right, take a moment and think back to your ninth-grade year… For me, it was a time filled with cheerleading practice and video games. Now, ask yourself this: At fourteen, what did I aspire to be?

Well, in my case, I entertained the idea of becoming a plumber (yes, you read that right). That later changed to ideas of being a mathematician, which then changed to about a dozen other things. With that said, had my high school implemented a career-pathways program, I may have been one of the kids that needed a bit more advising than my peers.

With the knowledge that the level of advising for each student is subjective, are there enough hours in a teacher’s day to spend guiding young students to set firm foundations for their future? I have never been a teacher, so I can’t wrap my head around the answer to that question.

So, I pose a few questions to all educators out there. Let’s openly discuss this.

1. How do you feel about the teacher’s pending role as career advisor?
2. Do you have enough time to take on this added responsibility in addition to the other work you already have to do?
3. There are seventeen career pathway clusters (finance, architecture and construction, energy, public safety and security, and hospitality, just to name a few). Do you feel fully capable of guiding students in one (if not all) of them?
4. What are your thoughts of the career pathways program in general?

We welcome any thoughts from educators in states where similar programs have already been put into operation.

Like I mentioned before, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea for the students. I’m not so sure if the ninth grade is the best time to decide or if waiting until the eleventh grade would be better—but I can see the potential of this program to set up our children for success.

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