Look inside Humboldt High Schools classrooms today, and you may notice something: learning looks a whole lot different than it used to.
Yes, students still take courses such as English, math, science and history. However, a statewide shift toward career readiness has allowed schools to provide more career-centered courses.
In Humboldt, Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are growing.
CTE courses offered at Humboldt High School teach students lessons outside the realm of reading, writing, and arithmetic and give them a head-start in preparing for their futures.
Construction classes teach students how to properly build a house. In photography, students take, edit and process the entire districts school pictures. Agriculture students learn welding techniques that will give them access to high-quality jobs after graduation.
And students in Family and Consumer Science (FACS) courses study the life planning skills and soft skills needed to be successful in any future career. Even writing this story is part of the push to get students to interact with local businesses.
Aside from the skills unique to each pathway, basic workplace skills are a part of the curriculum. In building houses and producing school photos, we learn how critically important it is to be punctual, meet deadlines, communicate effectively and take charge when needed. Because CTE courses offer hands-on learning, those skills take priority.
Students either build a sturdy house or they dont, and its up to the class to figure out what went wrong.
Taking CTE courses, along with FFA and 4-H, while in high school definitely helped prepare me for my current career, Ty Yowell, HHS Class of 2015 and current operation foreman for a pipeline maintenance company, said. I learned leadership and problem-solving skills that I use every day.
With the addition of a business teacher next year, students will gain even more learning opportunities.
The new teacher will relieve other educators, allowing HHS to add a Teaching/Training pathway along with Business pathways and an additional FACS pathway.
In the teaching courses, students will write lesson plans and work with children in a classroom setting, similar to the teaching methods courses in college.
Business courses will give students a chance to learn and practice accounting, entrepreneurship and how to run a business.
I think its going to be great for students, sophomore Sam Neeley said in regards to adding business courses. I want to take accounting because I think it will be helpful when I create my own brand for video gaming.
HHS currently offers four out of the seven Kansas CTE career fields available. Next year, with the addition of Business and Public Services, six out of seven will be offered.
