Disorganized homes, histories of welfare dependence and peer pressures against middle class standards produce people who must learn to show up ready to work, daily and on time. Churches and social agencies can help with education in the so-called Protestant work ethic. Much more widespread is inadequate preparation in basic verbal, mathematical, communication and thinking skills. With change a constant in today's economy, skills in demand yesterday are obsolete today. Workers who can adapt, retrain and upgrade their skills and goals will survive.
Businesses can partner with schools to impress that on young people early.
And certainly such partnerships can help area educators move with the market to provide skills instruction to meet specific immediate and near-term needs of employers. Let's hope these studies produce specific diagnoses and prescriptions. They need to be applied before Middle Georgia's economy winds up on life support. The information you receive online from The Macon Telegraph is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.