Concordia High School
Concordia, Kansas

Teacher: Timothy Berger

 

 

 Student Apprenticeship

By Melissa Conn
Grade 12

 

 

A rite of passage is an event or project that shows, proves, and/or prepares a teenager for the adult world.  We need rites of passages for many reasons.  “ Our basic human nature yearns for rites of passage, to be initiated into a group, to be recognized and to be accepted for who we are.”  Rites of passages have been apart of all cultures since the beginning of time in some way or another.  There have been rites of passages in which Indians sent teenage boys out into the forest for a month to survive on their own.  This proved that they could survive in their world on their own.  Since then, the world we live in has continually modernized.  It would not really prove anything to send the teenagers of today out into the wilderness for a month.  We need to find something that would provide a way to prove that teenagers can survive in the world today.  Apprenticeship is a perfect way to prove teenagers are ready to be adults. 

 

Apprenticeship would show and teach many things to the student.  Apprenticeship would help a student develop a good work ethic.  It would teach each student a specific skill, such as welding, electrical work, or carpentry.  It would teach responsibility and punctuality.  They will also be responsible for certain tasks at the businesses where they are working.  It would give each student a sense of accomplishment because they would be out in the real work world.  Apprenticeship might also give each student a better idea of what his or her future profession will be. 

 

The apprenticeship would have many requirements to go along with it.  Each student would have to make the arrangements to work where they want to.  The place of

business has to be able to teach the student a specific skill.  The student would have to work for forty hours total.  They would have their whole senior year to accomplish this.  On average the student would only have to work one hour a week to accomplish this requirement.  The students will be assigned tasks to do by their employer.  Each student will be treated just like any other employee.  However, the students will not be paid for their work.   Each student will also be required to keep a log of the times that they work and what they do each day.  At the end of the year, each student will have to write a paper summarizing what they did at their job throughout the year and what they learned from the year of apprenticeship.

 

Apprenticeship will impact the lives of all the people who are involved with the businesses at which the students are volunteering.  The owner of the business will be receiving extra help for free.  Having the student there would also take some of the stress off the other employees working for that business.  It would help that business to get more done. Apprenticeship would also most likely help provide better customer service because of the extra help.

 

Apprenticeship would provide many opportunities to the students and it would prove that they are ready for adulthood.  There are problems in every job that have to be solved on a daily basis.  Apprenticeship will help these students learn new skills; this will especially help those students who don't go on to any further schooling.  It will help them to find a good job because they have already learned a special skill.   Apprenticeship also would establish a close connection with experts and others in the field that a student chooses.  The students would be working with or for experts in their field.  It would also give each student a sense of accomplishment because they stuck with a certain job throughout the year.   They would know that they succeeded in their job.  The students will feel like they contributed to the business by being there to help and learn.  Apprenticeship gives the students a goal of learning to do a certain skill.  They know that they have to work at that skill, and at the end of the year it feels good to them to know that they accomplished their goal.  The students would get much out of their apprenticeship of a business.

 

The students will each have an advisor with in the school to help them.  The advisor will help the students with scheduling when they work.  They will also help to make sure that logs are being kept by the student.  They will help to write the paper at the end of the year.  The most important job of the advisor would be to keep the student on track, to make sure that they are working and not waiting to the last minute to do it all. They basically are there for support and to answer any questions.

 

The whole apprenticeship and paper work that goes along with it should be done one week before the last day of school.   This means that logs and the paper will be turned in on this day.  The each student’s advisor will be the one to grade their logs and papers.  Each student must have an acceptable log and paper to graduate.

 

Student apprenticeship is a great way to show that high school seniors are ready to be adults.  The apprenticeship will give each student experience in the work world.  It will teach them skills that could help them in the future.  The students that do not go on to a college or vocational school will have some credentials that are recognized and accepted.  It shows a lot of responsibility and increases desire to work.  Apprenticeship could give a student a motivational boost in to the working world.

 

Bailey, Thomas and Merritt, Donna. “Youth Apprenticeship: Lessons from the U.S. Experience.” 5 November 1998. Manpower Demonstration Research                       Corporation. 15 November 1999. <http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/CenterFocus/cfl.html>.

 

Holmes, Jan. “Why Do We Need Rites of Passage?” Rites of Passage. 1998. The Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society. 23 November 1999. <http://www.dtmms.org/readingroom/why_rites.htm>.

 

Laughing, Karen. “What Are Rites of Passages?” Rites of Passage. 1998. The Deer Tribe Metis Medicine Society. 23 November 1999. <http://www.dtmms.org/readingroom/rites.htm>.

 

“Wilderness Rite of Passage for Youth.” 1998. VisionQuest. <http://members.aol.com/seventhg/page4.html>.

 

 

Required Reading Questions and Answers

 

1) What does Margret Mead say at the start of her 1961 Preface to Coming Of Age In Samoa that is reminiscent of a current Army recruiting commercial?

“Show me the Challenge”

 

2) Which of the following issues of the 1920’s are no longer issues today?

            The importance of language spoken in the home.

 

3)  Do you agree with Margaret Mead that “culture is man-made and that man is                   free to design it closer to the desires of his own heart”?  What definition of “culture” do you find in your dictionary?

Yes; culture is the customs, beliefs, laws, and ways of living and all other results           of human work on through that belongs to people.

 

4)  In her writings Margaret Mead was advocating:

            Greater knowledge and control over the civilizing process.

Comment on Susan’s speech (page 60 A Tribe Apart).  Do you and your peers really want adults to recognize what is going on and to enforce “boundaries and structure”?

Susan’s speech tells about the use of drugs and alcohol in schools in an up front manor.  It tells how the teachers and parents do not even realize the magnitude of the problem.  I believe that this is a problem that effects almost every school in America.  I think that teachers and parents are not completely in the dark.  However, I think that certain students get labeled as the “bad ones” and are expected to do things such as drugs and drink alcohol.  Then, there are the students who get over looked for everything.  I believe that teens do want adults to know what is going on in their lives, so that they have somewhere to turn.

 

5) Write three things that you “absolutely, positively know, saw or experienced concerning drugs and alcohol among” students at your school.

I have seen people drink a lot of beer at parties.  I have seen people chew and smoke at school.  I have seen people smoke weed at Buffalo Creek in a car.  There are many people who drink and use drugs in our school.

 

6) Do you have a solution for the “plight of the black teenager”?

There is not much Charles can do.  It is not fair what people do to people of `different races or color, but it happens everyday.  The only thing I could suggest is that everyone including Charles should treat others with the utmost respect.  It is really hard to be mean and deny someone who is doing their best, and is really nice to everyone.

 

7) Would it be a relief if all you had to do was “go to classes and learn”?  Would you be happy if you were home-schooled or attended a single-sex private school where academics were presented in and exciting way and learning was admired even by peers?

Yes, because it would relieve a lot of stress after school and during school.  No, I would rather have different people around me.

 

8) Comment on the line from Pete Seeger: “Schools are like prisons because they don’t teach you how to live.” and Jonathan’s comment “People in school are dulled by the remoteness to the real world.”  Would more classes incorporating community-based learning be helpful?  (incorporating activities with relevance to actual real life situations)

The line from Pete Seeger, I feel, is pretty much true.  I think that schools are not teaching us certain skills to survive in life.  They are also somewhat of a harsh environment for anyone.  Jonathan was right when he said, “People in school are dulled by the remoteness to the real world.”  While in school we are completely separated from the “real world.”  We have to be in a school where most people are just trying to get by, not really learning much.  Most teens feel so uncomfortable that they don’t get to much out of being in school.  I think that more community-based learning would be helpful.  It would allow more teens to get involved with more things that interest them, and might lead to future professions.  It might also create a more comfortable environment for them because they will be around people who are truly interested in the same things as them.   

 

9) Comment on the “bottom line” (page 364A Tribe Apart).

Parents and adults have gone through hardships already and have some experience and knowledge for these things.  That way teens should be able to go to adults when they need to talk to someone about their problems.