Book Review: Helping Teens Find Their Future
Getting Real: Helping Teens Find Their Future
Author: Kenneth Carter Gray
Length: 216 pages
Intent/Focus: This book exposes the dangerous gap between America’s educational approach and the realities of the world economy – and proposes a new plan of action.
What You Will Learn: Concrete statistics to reinforce the need for helping our students develop “career maturity” at an early age, with ways to guide them toward satisfying, sustaining jobs (which may or may not include earning college degrees)
Why We Recommend It: This book is both brilliantly written and jarring in its commitment to stark reality – an important read for anyone in a position to positively influence the future of America’s youth
Summary:
“The insights this book provides are not only long overdue, but critical to the long-term future of our economy.”
~ Matt Youngquist – Founder of Career Horizons
Help your students achieve success after high school through meaningful career development. In Getting Real, Kenneth Carter Gray shows us that without a realistic postsecondary strategy, more than half of America’s students experience sobering college and career challenges. This book is designed to help educators improve students' odds of success by guiding them toward “career maturity.”
Getting Real examines current occupational trends and projections that support the need for a new approach to education. A college degree has always been considered the unequivocal path to career prosperity, and for decades our priority has been to increase the number of college admissions. Yet, Dr. Gray’s extensive research shows that less than 23% of all employment requires a college-level education, and the country is now experiencing a massive shortage of skilled workers. To fill the gap, America’s companies are hiring undocumented workers and filing for emergency immigrant visas, while millions of U.S. citizens remain un- or underemployed.
As part of our Chase the Race 2016 program, we interviewed high school students to learn which issues are important to today’s youth. The growing problems of college debt and global competition for jobs were foremost on their minds. These teens are already in the process of “getting real,” and they’re looking for solutions.
Dr. Gray believes that America’s educators can adjust their focus to help students make well-informed academic and career decisions. He offers a systematic, six-step plan for developing confident, clear-thinking teens who can integrate their aspirations with today’s economic realities.
Key elements of the book include:
- The fundamentals of the labor market
- Myths and misconceptions that can limit students' choices
- Alternatives to a four-year degree
- Career exploration strategies and activities
Feedback from Readers
Carol Christen, author of What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens writes: “Dr. Gray shows why success for today's teens will depend as much on creating detailed and achievable post-high school plans as it does on getting good grades. His definitions of career maturity for 10th and 12th grade students are revolutionary.”
Other reader comments on Amazon include:
“Ken Gray has dared to challenge what we all have come to believe to be the "right" path for a student to follow... I highly recommend this book for anyone who works in close contact with high school students.”
“Mr. Gray uses the analogy that getting a college degree is like getting a ticket to an overbooked flight. Everyone has a ticket, but not everyone makes it on the plane.”
“Mr. Gray then follows with specific ways to help students in a school setting and gives suggested programs for students to access and learn work skills. There are also chapters addressing gender roles in work and education as well as students with disabilities and ethnic minorities.”
About the Author
Kenneth C. Gray has worked as a high school English teacher, guidance counselor, administrator and superintendent of the Vocational Technical High School System in Connecticut. He is currently a professor in the Workforce Education and Development Program at Penn State. He holds a doctorate in technical education from Virginia Tech, among other degrees.
Related Articles:
How to Help Kids Who Are Stressing About Careers
Curriculum of the 21st Century
Worth Sharing: Alternatives to a 4-Year Degree