TRIBUTE TO TECH

Yeah I play favorites, so what. If you want objective news, go read the ITEM. You won't get as much news but at least it will be objective or what passes for it. Me, I got a  couple ponies in this race. One that runs for PICKERING while the other wears the MARSHALL colors.

When it comes to high schools, well that's where it gets a little more complicated. You see my daughter cheers for EAST LYNN POP WARNER and well, they are the BULLDOGS and they practice at ENGLISH.

My son has played for LYNN YOUTH SOCCER so I sometimes get into saying, "GO GREEN". LYNN CLASSICAL also overlooks the field.

DIVIDED LOYALTIES, WHAT DO I EVER DO? I sort of solve that problem by being a partial to LYNN TECH. It's not that I don't want to choose between the two (like a parent I love my kids equally, different but equal), I have made a choice I favor LYNN TECH and here is why.

I feel like LYNN TECH lives in the REAL WORLD. I admit I have always had this passionate predjudice against anything academic. Sure I went to a fancy (remember I'm from WV and well our definitions are not quite the same as you yankees') private college. All my test scores said that's what I was supposed to do.

I was miserable so I went through things as fast as I could. Life through up a road block as life tends to do and slowed me down. You see I was going so fast, I couldn't see what was really important, what mattered.

Life is looked at with differing perceptions, change your perceptions change your life. A lot of people pooh pooh LVTI as a second class  high school because of the "V" word, you know "vo-ca-tion-al".

Well "news flash", AP courses don't make you smart. Yeah, you might do a little better if you are ever a contestant on "Jeopardy" but that is not a guarantee. Living life is what makes you smart. Some people see better with their hands than their eyes and a traditional classroom is not going to correct their vision. If the focus is too narrow, well maybe you just need different lenses.

Every year LVTI has an "open house" to recruit eighth graders to become potential students. Enrollment is down BUT this year's recruitment session was WAY better attended than last year's.

WHY WAS THAT? Paradis's proficient leadership? Perhaps. Better weather, no blustery blizzard?  Maybe. Could be the added exposure due to a wildly successful CAMP EXPLORER during the summer session last year. I would venture to say probably it might be the realization that times they are a changin. College is getting just too expensive and for what.

It is not that we should close all the doors to HARVARD. We need doctors, teachers, and yes, even LAWYERS. It's just that we don't need everybody taking the same path to get to different locations.

Don't fall into that old academic prejudice that you have to go to college to become smart and that's why everyone should go to the traditional high schools. Let me call your attention to Ron Beckett, the president of LVTI alumni association. I don't have his resume in front of me but I KNOW he was ENORMOUSLY successful as a TECH grad. Mostly because of his passion for the importance of vocational education the MACHINE SHOP was saved through his efforts to get the superintendent and the mayor to see the light. That's a doctor and a lawyer.

Then there is MY DAD. He never went to college. Heck, he didn't even finish high school. He got his GED in the ARMY. He out argued a fancy local lawyer and won an employment dispute. Like every young boy, I wanted to make it to the Major Leagues and my Dad was my Little League coach and NOBODY knew the rule book any better. On top of that, I was a hot shot teacher's pet but my Dad regularly wiped up the floor with me in chess. Pretty good for a TEAMSTER.

The point is that there is more than one way to learn and be smart. It's all about options.