Salem High School

Salem, Missouri

Teacher: John Hendricks

 

Why We Should Have An IT School In The Community.

By Kevin Pyles

 

  I have found a program called Information Technology (IT). It has helped several people to get high paying jobs right out of high school. IT has helped in that many people can go part time to it, while still going to their jobs. After most of them completed their course, they where able to move up in their job or quit their job and move to a better job that paid more. 

           

It would be nice to have this program here so that some people in the community could get a little better paying job. Most people here would like to get a better education but cannot afford it, but with this opportunity they will be able to do it by enrolling in this program. Some would just like to get a raise in their job by going to a night class.  They could do this by going into the IT program. All we would be doing is competing with SBU and maybe it would help lower prices for class so more people will start going back to school.

       

It is done by the National Academy Foundation (NFC). It can be used by high schools across the country. This network of rigorous academies will be a key element in preparing our information technology workforce for the next century. The curriculum embodies the latest teaching strategies, providing students the flexibility and skills needed in this rapidly emerging field. It consists of 9th Ä12th grades curriculum aligned with relevant academic, employment, and workplace standards.  It will also provide opportunities to make partners with community colleges and universities. The materials will be delivered to the teachers in an online format. The teaching could be done via a teacher in the classroom or by a classroom TV (wherein a teacher can teach a class with lots of people in different places).

       

It can be done here. There is already a program in Salem that is kind of like this. It is called TCRC. It is located in the front of the armory. It already has all the equipment for the classroom TV. It has been working for at least six months and has had two classes. It is slowly getting more people as each class comes along. This is probably what will happen to the IT program as it would start, if we were to have it come in. We can afford this because we have most of the stuff that is required for the program to come in with every little cost to the community or the school.

       

Here is a person that right after high school was making $15-an-hour. Then he went back to school, and three months later, his salary increased to $52,000 a year. He has just recently gone back to school again and passed an exam for advanced networking, and his salary has now gone from $68,000 a year to $85,000 a year. I think that is a pretty good pay increase that is a 17,000-dollar increase.  

           

Some 18-year-old may start out earning $50,000 to $70,000 a year as a network administrator. But most others think they don’t need that school, and if they think that way, they will be unemployable because they did not get some training or college or program that I am talking about. See this programs' money incentives could help change those kids' minds, by them just seeing that it would probably won't cost that much to get enrolled. That should provide some of the kids that think they don’t need one a good reason that they could do this if they think about it.

           

I think that this program will help hundreds of people down the road as it gains popularity.  I think that the community and the school will benefit from this program. There are no other things like this a round that is worth traveling to that is close so that local people do not just waste gas just going back and forth. That traveling is what people currently have to do around here to get a night class that is a little in some people's price range. But in the long run they spend more on gas than on the class, so it is a loose situation. This is why I think that the town and school should get this program so that people will not have to waste gas, and they will not have to pay so much money just for a night class to get a better life. That is why we should get this program for the school and for the community so that they can improve their life style into today's life style.                                                                                                                                                                              [Back]