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Career readiness is a little easier at schools like Aviation High
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Aviation High School in Long Island, with satellite campus embedded in JFK airport, funnels students into high paying jobs in the air and on the ground. - photo by Eric Schulzke
One of the most cutting-edge high school programs in the country is 80 years old, and it teaches students in the heart of one of the world's busiest airports, NPR notes in a new profile of the program.

Aviation High School is based in Long Island but it has a smaller campus within New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport, where students study in classrooms attached to the airport and out among the planes, working alongside a technician or engineer doing paid internships with major airlines.

"Since airplanes are full of complicated systems that require physics and math, the students often get to try out concepts they've learned in the classroom: coordinates, angles, rotation," NPR noted.

"We are also one of the top schools academically in our state despite the fact that 65 percent of our students come from homes below the poverty level and 90 percent are first-generation Americans," principal Deno Charalambous told Flying Magazine last year.

Pathways out of American high schools and into the workforce or higher education have long been murky for many kids, particularly those whose parents did not attend college.

"One hurdle facing kids leaving high school is that we offer little useful information on pathways between career programs and jobs," Mary Alice McCarthy, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., told the Deseret News in 2014.

Building bridges across those chasms has been a growing concern. One model is offered by Cristo Rey high schools, as outlined by the Deseret News last year, a network of Catholic schools that require students to work one day a week in an office, building networks and workplace maturity that seems to pay off whether the students go straight to college or into the workforce.

Some of the most interesting paths have been apprenticeships that take kids out of high school or, like the Aviation school at JFK, create a seemless bridge between work and high school. Some of the most interesting work here has been done in South Carolina, as NPR reports.

Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli told Knowledge@Wharton last week that many employers still shun apprenticeship programs because they want to hire people who are already trained and skilled.

Employers [in the U.S.] gave up on training," Cappelli said. "They thought they didnt have to, and for a while it looked like they didnt have to because you could hire the people you wanted who already had experience someplace else. That works OK until everybody has that. And then it stops working.
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How to avoid 'sharenting' and other paparazzi parenting habits
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A recent study revealed parents often spend up to two hours staging a single photo of his or her child to post online. - photo by Amy Iverson
Before having kids, some people just dont appreciate their friends baby posts. But after having a child of their own, three fourths of new parents jump right on the parental social media bandwagon. If you have become a member of this group, there are some rules to follow for posting responsibly.

Much of a parents worry is how to teach their children to use social media responsibly. We talk with our kids about privacy, oversharing, and setting restrictions on their devices to keep them safe. But parents themselves need to look in the digital mirror once in a while. Before having children, it doesnt take as much effort to think about what to post online. Its up to us to decide what we share about our own lives. But once you become a parent, there are many questions to think about regarding what is appropriate to post about your kids on social media.

In a recent survey, kids clothing subscription company Mac and Mia surveyed 2000 new parents to find out how they are documenting their kids lives on social media, and what concerns they may have.

First of all, people without children seem to feel a bit differently about the onslaught of baby pictures online than those who are parents. 18 percent of people say before they had kids, they were annoyed by their friends baby posts. But after having children of their own, 73 percent admit they post progress pictures of their little ones every single month.

Not only are new parents letting the world know each time their baby is a month older, but they are posting about their kids every few days or so. Men and women report they post 6-7 times per month about their baby.

And while 70 percent of new parents say the benefit of using social media is how easy it is to help family and friends feel involved, there are some downsides. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfall of becoming paparazzi parents.

Dont miss the moment

In the Mac and Mia survey, some parents admitted to spending up to two hours to get the perfect shot of their baby. That seems a little extreme. New and old parents alike should be careful about spending so much time taking pictures and videos that they dont enjoy the moment. Years ago, I decided to never live an experience through my phone. A study by Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, found that when people took pictures of objects in an art museum, they didnt remember the objects as well as if they simply observed them.

This photo-taking impairment effect can happen to parents as well. If we are so consumed by getting the perfect photo, we can miss out on the moment all together, and our memory of it will suffer.

Dont forget about privacy

60 percent of couples say they have discussed rules and boundaries for posting their babys photos, according to the Mac and Mia survey. Even so, men are 34 percent more likely to publish baby posts on public accounts. If parents are concerned about their childrens privacy, keeping photos off of public accounts is a given.

In the Washington Post, Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida, and Bahareh Keith, a Portland pediatrician, wrote that sharing too much information about kids online puts them at risk. They write that all that sharenting can make it easier for data thieves to target out kids for identity theft. Check that your privacy settings are where they should be and never share identifying information like full names and birth dates.

Dont be paparazzi parents

36 percent of parents say they take issue when their childs photo is posted online by someone else. Responsible social media users will always ask permission before posting a photo of another child. But parents should also think about whether their own children will take issue with their own posted photos a few years down the road.

When parents are constantly snapping pictures and throwing them on social media, it can be easy to forget to pause and make sure the post is appropriate. I always use the billboard example with my kids. I ask them to picture whatever they are posting going up on a billboard in our neighborhood. If they are okay with that, then their post is probably fine. Parents should ask themselves this same question when posting about their children. But they should also ask themselves if their child would be OK with this post on a billboard in 15 years. If it would cause embarrassment or humiliation, it might be best to keep it private.

Once children reach an appropriate age, parents should include them in the process of deciding what pictures are OK to post. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 10- to 17-year-olds and found children believe their parents should ask permission more than parents think they should. The kids in the survey said sharing happy family moments, or accomplishments in sports, school and hobbies is fine. But when the post is negative (like when a child is disciplined) or embarrassing (think naked baby pictures or messy hair), kids say to keep it off social media.
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