I'm a FIRM believer in them myself! I can't prepare a student for life in a university setting and the skills they will need to cope there at the same time as I prepare a student for an apprenticeship or the like.

What's the point in forcing someone who's bound for TAFE or a trade to sit through the HSC exams and write essays on history or Shakespeare, play with trig identities or deal with chemical equilibrium equations? How does poetry help the student who aims to be a mechanic? How does poetry help the student wanting to become a doctor for that matter?!

One of my biggest frustrations is that so many students are forced into doing the final two years of academic schooling when it is really just putting them in a holding pattern and putting them, us and the other students through misery!

Yes, it was a frustrating day with my senior students.

BW
That is what I liked about the Tassie system when I went through it. Years 11 and 12 in the public system were seperate from high school. At the end of year 10 you decided whether to do your HSC at college, go to Tafe, find an apprentiship or just drop out in the hope of finding a job. Not sure if it is still like that, but I hope it is.

Got to get back to this, Miss 3 is calling.