Learned how to make paper bags and cardboard boxes. Got a temporary job in a potato chip plant. Teachers have been doing these and other jobs as part of a growing effort, supported by corporate interests and federal funds, to give them a firsthand look at the skills needed in the modern workplace. The summer jobs in the private sector and government and at nonprofit agencies help teachers better relate their lessons to the real world. Many public school teachers went directly from college to the classroom and have never done any other professional work.
Teachers are pretty isolated from the careers that their students are going to go into.
What some teachers learn on the factory floor or in the office, for instance, can be useful to the one-third of high school graduates who don't continue their educations and go straight to work. But teachers' workplace experiences also can shape everything from basic lessons taught the youngest students to the advanced mathematics courses for college-bound students who wonder aloud about the practical uses of calculus. Mo. She spent a couple of weeks observing factory workers at Springfield ReManufacturing Corp., which reconditions diesel engines. More than most people imagine. Another task that factory workers and kindergarten students have in common is sorting objects of different shapes.