In 1983 the Advisory Council for Technical-Vocational Education in Texas asked 1100 employers to rate the
importance of education, training, attitudes, grooming, etc. to the acceptance or rejection of job applicants. The
second and third most cited reasons for rejecting job applicants were “lack of job-related skills/education” and an
“incomplete and/or poorly filled out job application form.” Ask your students when it was that they last fille
out a job application form that had multiple-choice questions. The employers surveyed also cited the “ability t
write and speak effectively” as the number one area needing improvement among job applicants. This item was
not even among the top five in a similar survey eight years before. Because many of our students are aiming for
full-lime employment as soon as they complete two or four years of college, we as their educators clearly have
our work cut out for us.

History is particularly suited to developing the reading and writing skills our students will need. It is
blessedly jargon-free, unlike some of the other social sciences. Writing essays and papers helps reinforce gram-
matical skills. While no history textbook will ever win a Pulitzer Prize, we can require our students to read
some of the more felicitously written books and essays which have graced our profession. The reading of histo-
ry for pleasure by the general public remains high, as Bruce Catton, Barbara Tuchman, and David McCullough,
lo name just three, have proven, Exposure to good writing can rub off on students. Indeed, | encourage them
to read anything—magazines, newspapers, books of any kind—just to develop the reading habit. Unfortunate-
ly, many two-year college students come from homes where reading is the exception, not the rule.

(3) We must offer students experiences in hopefulness. My students too often display a resignation that the na-
tional and world situation is hopeless and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I am depressed at such pas-
sivity in young people. Some of them are from lower socio-economic rungs of the ladder and are struggling to
get by economically. Such people sometimes feel that others higher up are “running things” and that there is
little they can do to effect change. Most depressing, some students tell me they do not expect to live to the age
of 50-—they will die in a nuclear war first.

History is a study of how people bring about change and react to change. Change is inevitable in all of our
lives--how well we cope with it determines how well we manage both individually and collectively as a society.
Ilistory shows again and again that constructive change is possible. In the United States, progressive reformers
of the carly twentieth century showed that the working class could improve its condition. The massive shift in
public opinion over the Vietnam war surely had something to do with getting us out of that unhappy conflict.
The civil rights movement is eloquent testimony to those who sought change for the better. Of course, history
has its grim side, too—and we must show this in our teaching. Basically, history shows the processes of so
cieties coping and changing. It’s the same for individuals. How well each of us handles the challenges and
changes in our own lives—aging, divorces, family deaths, and the like—determines the state of our own mental
health. History can provide some guidance in this regard.

| am upbeat and hopeful about my students, despite my negative comments about their skills. They are
good people, well-meaning, and sincere—I haven't met one | didn’t like personally. I’m sure at 18 | had some
of the same weaknesses I now criticize in them. Some of them are incredibly hard-working and determined to
make it. | think we can help them.

William F. Mugleston, Chairman
Social Science & Technology Division

For further information, contact the author at Mountain View College, 4849 W. Illinois, Dallas, TX 75211.

 

DOUGLAS COLLEGE
ARCHIVES

 

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
April 19, 1985, Vol. VII, No. 13

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