Apprenticing Verse Schooling "Everything one needs to know, he learns in kindergarten." Then why do people pressure students into seeking knowledge in school? Yes, intelligence is significant for success and achieving dreams, but why not extend our intellect by placing youth in worldly situations? Until the world grasps the concepts of apprentices, children will be forced to attend schools. Presently, a high school diploma or a college degree is the basis of occupation and recognition. When a person applies for a job, what is the main question asked? "Do you have a high school diploma or college degree?" When someone goes to a job interview, he must have a legal document stating he is qualified for the job. Yet if someone receives a degree for secretarial work, but has never operated a computer, most likely, he is not the man for the job . However, he will still be considered by an employer simply based on his "education." Yet, if someone who can type ninety-six words per minute with a smile on his face applies to be a secretary, yet he has no diploma or degree, it is probable that he will not obtain the job. Thus, the man most capable of doing the work is forced into scrubbing floors in the local pub. Children of all ages strive for success, but meanwhile are discouraged by the years wasted on unnecessary schooling. For instance, someone may ask what is the purpose of one taking the dual enrollment courses in high school. College is the basis of a good profession, and in order for one to graduate college, the basic classes of English, science, and mathematics must be passed. If these courses are taken at a university, the classes can be costly. If these classes are taken in high school, the price is less expensive. Also, because timeslots must be filled in high school with classes, it is best to fill the time with something necessary for college while also saving money. But if the world practices learning by apprenticing and places children in a their future professions, the effects would outstand the business world of today. In the early centuries when the Egyptians constructed with hands immense pyramids, their goals were accomplished without the technology of today. People also grew in knowledge and skill by apprenticing in their chosen fields. When in the early stages of life, a child would train in a certain vocation by following in the footsteps of a master in that particular profession. If the world reverted to the age of apprenticing, not only would children be willing to work with all their might, but would also overcome the obstacles in their occupation easier than remember some words in an old textbook. When apprenticing was the system for training for an occupation, people did not get a choice at which profession they would master. People would either follow in the footsteps of their fathers or be placed in a profession to study from the time they were born. This forcing of vocation would lead to a hatred of many jobs. However, by changing the format of apprenticing, the new system could work effectively. If the same public schooling system is kept through elementary and middle school years, the basic knowledge needed for every life and government situation is learned. Then in high school, teens would be given the chance to experience several occupations over a four-year period by apprenticing or following a master of a chosen subject. Then after this four-year process, students would then attend a college to master their occupation choice and to study more advanced knowledge. By doing this apprenticing method, any profitable effects would be produced. Presently in high school, students are so eager to be in the business world that they drop out of school; if teenagers are place in this new system, the percentage of high-school and college dropout rates would decrease. During college years, the average student changes his major about five times. One of the significant reasons for this is that the students do not intern or role play until their junior and senior years, just as in the case with my sister. My sister decided her freshman year of college that she would major in broadcast journalism. She skipped all of the necessary courses and took her journalism requirements instead. After a year of classes, she began to work at the local news station after school...and hated it. So after weeks of complaining and crying, she changed her major to child and family studies. Fortunately, she made this decision her sophomore year so that she will be able to finish college in four years. Also if this system changes, people would be more professional and content with their jobs by studying books after experiencing occupations. Yet if we keep the present schooling style, students will keep dropping out, professionals will still be discontent, and workers would still be inexperienced. Yet if we turn to the old ways of apprenticing, everyone may resent whoever chose their job and may be uneducated for life and government situations. Thus, we must change the system. In my future career, I will travel to the mission field in South and Central America. To succeed in this vocation, I must be able to communicate with churches and other donators in order to raise money. In the past years and even in the past months, I have been apprenticing at the church whenever time allows. Also, I have led Bible studies in my home and even have translated for a Hispanic. Yet as I prepare to be a fulltime missionary, people and churches expect me to have a degree from college, even with all the previous training I have completed. Thus, I will attend Freed-Hardeman University in the Fall of 2007 to acquire a double major in Spanish and Bible. Through the years I have learned through several experiences how to listen and help people through tough times, how to communicate through a language barrier, which strategy is best for sharing the Gospel, and many more necessary skills for mission work. Yet, as I think back through my last few years of schooling, the only information profitable to my future occupation I remember learning and retaining is Spanish. This means, if my calculations are correct, if I take four Spanish classes out of twenty-six courses I complete, more than eighty-four percent of my time will be wasted in high school. Yet there are still infinitely many areas of expertise in the world. Which ones should students study during the years of schooling? What is considered necessary? What would happen if every specialist had an opportunity to teach his subject in school? Are their enough specialists to teach every student every subject? Why not let the students who want to learn a subject ask the specialist instead of the specialist enforcing his subject on an ungrateful child? Why will we not learn "to live is to learn"? Why not risk it?