Program on vocational education to air on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 8 pm on NPR radio station WBUR featuring Minuteman High School in Lexington

By Judy Bass

National Public Radio station WBUR 90.9 will air the American RadioWorks documentary “Ready to Work: Reviving Vocational Ed” on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 8 pm. After listeners hear this thought-provoking look at contemporary vocational education featuring Minuteman High School in Lexington, they may never again think of voke ed the same way.

In fact, if you think all high schools should just be pipelines directly to college, this presentation will be an eye-opener. Same thing if you still cling to the now-threadbare stereotypes concerning vocational students and their schools.

Lauding Minuteman as “a 21st-century vocational high school” and “an example of what good career and technical education looks like,” the documentary describes what present-day vocational education offers to students who choose it instead of enrolling at a high school with a strictly academic curriculum.

As the documentary explains, whether students aim for college after high school or head right into the workforce, the objective of a vocational education at a place like Minuteman is to help them decide on the profession that suits them best and to prepare them for it as thoroughly as possible.

In the words of Minuteman’s Superintendent, Dr. Edward A. Bouquillon, the school’s students should be able to answer two key questions once they have their high school diploma in hand: “What do I do well and what do I love to do?”

“And we will connect the answers to occupations or college majors,” said Bouquillon.

As “Ready to Work” indicates, students whose forte isn’t academics can still find a niche that fits them at a school like Minuteman, thus making it far more likely that they will finish their high school education and then hopefully snag a solid position in a field they enjoy.

Speaking of academics, the school’s vocational classes bring abstract or complex academic concepts to life using vivid real-world applications students can relate to. With that approach, no student is relegated to getting left behind because she or she lacks a natural flair for, say, math or science presented straight out of a textbook.

At Minuteman, the vocational offerings are plentiful and varied. Students can pick from 20 rigorous career programs that include biotechnology, telecommunications, robotics, and environmental science and technology, along with trades such as carpentry and plumbing. All freshmen participate in an exploratory program that gives them a brief but valuable overview of each career path, thus helping them discover which areas they gravitate to – and which they don’t.

Superintendent Bouquillon said, “Sometimes I’ll have kids who, at the end of their four years, they’ll say, ‘Dr. B, you know, I came here [interested] in nursing and I [learned I] really don’t like it.’ And that’s a valuable thing to know.”

Minuteman High School provides its students with a superb academic and technical education that readies them for professional success and gives them the ability to become contributing members of the community. Minuteman’s rigorous, challenging curriculum prepares students to excel in an increasingly competitive 21st century global economy. In addition, Minuteman has numerous services available for the public at reasonable cost and of outstanding quality. Please visit www.minuteman.org for more information on Minuteman High School.