HOUSTON - His older brother and his cousins were on drugs and gangs, their immigrant parents failed to complete their primary education and economic pressures besetting the family, but Sandro Aguilar, 22, decided to go to college.
"I saw the way he (my brother) as a child and followed the path that followed my older cousins, and I thought, I want something better for my family," says Aguilar, who finished the race in Psychology and became the first in his family to have a university degree.
His brother, however, did not complete high school or obtained a technical training. "I would have liked my brother to become an electrician or a plumber, or anything that he would like," Aguilar said.
The young professor at the preparatory YES Houston, a school designed to encourage children to finish college, refers to a dilemma that experts consider crucial among young Latinos and other minorities in the United States: learning a specialty or technical continue preparing university.
What kind of education?
Experts and educators differ on what is the solution. Some say that the Latino community can benefit from technical schools and industrial certifications, while others argue that if Hispanics do not reach a college degree, could see limited their economic security.
Although technical courses can be a fast track option to get a job and earn money, skills learned there would not be enough to compete in the labour market today, says Stephen L. Klineberg, a professor at Rice University in Houston.
"The preparatory education now is not enough to get a good job in the new economy," says Klineberg. "We need 14 years of school, at least 2 years at the Community College, a center with two-year university programs.
Klineberg refers to an accumulation of 6 years of primary, secondary, 2, 4 high school, and 2 more for a university degree or 4 to graduate from a university.
Several experts point out that those who drop out of school or end up but with a specialty technique could be locked into a situation of poverty in the long term.
For Klineberg, for example, the Latino community is facing a "monumental tragedy" because, he says, more than 50 percent of Hispanic students failed to complete high school in Houston.
Klineberg insists that the link between education and income is stronger than ever in the country's history. "The essential message is that we are in a world where few have strong arms and lots of willingness to work, but have no skills, is something that could encerrarte in poverty for the rest of your life," says (see box 1) .
What technically important
Sarah Wrobleski, director of education programs of technical Pasadena Independent School District, says that there are many good technical careers. The 65 per cent of students in this school district is Latino.
"If one looks at the labour market, there is a higher demand for students of technical field (university)," said Wrobleski, based on their experience.
The educator says that many students can not afford college without financial aid. "We have many (students) who use what they learn here and pay their university," he says.
The department that manages Wrobleski offers 24 certifications for high school students in Cosmetology, Criminal Justice, Car Repair, Agriculture or ventilation systems, among others.
"(But) we do not want (students) think that this is the end of their careers, but the principle," said Wrobleski.
ROSEN Garcia, director of the Department of Career and technical education of the Houston Independent School District (HISD, for its acronym in English) also defends technical education. Most school districts in Houston and its metropolitan area have set up similar centres to provide training and technical training to high school students.
Garcia says that in Houston there is a very big demand for people with certifications industrial and students can have the opportunity to work and create an economic base for entering a university and fund its costs.
The educator asserts that the medical industry and the automotive and construction are demanding a significant number of nursing assistants, pharmaceutical technicians, mechanics, technicians cartoonists, among others.
"It's like a domino effect," said Garcia. "The boys took one course after another, with the possibility of working in an industry in one company, to practice what we already learned in class."
Claudia Arana, 17-year high school student from Stephen F. Austin, in the East End, for example, extended a magnet, which offers a specialized curriculum in the teaching professions.
The student said he took courses in basic computer and typing, in addition to its technical preparation in education. The magnet program includes practice as an assistant professor in a primary or secondary school.
"So I will lead the class once a week and (to leave school) I can say that I have already worked with children," says the student.
Arana said that his goal is to build support in the form of scholarships to complete a diploma in two years at the Community College and for teacher certification. Then, Arana plans to study engineering at Rice University.
The computer courses helped him to get a full-time practice in the oil company Shell in Houston, this summer, says the student.
Marty Nemko, educational consultant and author of several books and articles on college education, says that universities are overvalued and that the technical preparation and certification options are important because people tend to teach professionals.
According Nemko, the graduation rate in universities is lower than what people normally think, especially among students who had a low academic performance in high school.
Nemko says that two of every three students who performed below average in high school fail to complete a career college.
"Not all are made to go to college," says Nemko a telephone interview from San Francisco, California. The expert explained that some universities in the country, with the desire to include minorities, to admit students who had a low academic performance and who have no conditions to complete their studies.
"Some students may take five or six years to finish their studies and even then there is no guarantee they can get a job," says Nemko.
"There are students who simply are not good academically, they are not willing to work hard at learning calculation (...), art history, all the materials you have to take to have a degree, and that is not, nor is it a disgrace a crisis, "says Nemko when talking about people who have no academic inclinations.
Nemko says that we must help students make the best decisions for their lives. "We have to treat each child as a single person," said the expert, author of the article "Higher education: the Product most overvalued U.S.."
The expert also ensures that there is now a shortage of mechanics and technicians who repaired, for example, medical equipment, among others. "However, counselors and media felt the high school students who are unsuccessful if some do not have an academic orientation," says Nemko.
Missing more participation
Another expert, Barmak Nassiri, believes that for Latinos and other minorities, especially low-income, arriving at college is difficult and complex.
Parents with limited English and little education are usually not in condition to help their children reach college, said in Nassiri, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), dedicated to facilitate the entry of young people to universities and based in Washington, DC
In addition, Latinos with economic responsibilities are not always able to pay for college while maintaining their families, Nassiri said.
While options are available, need more participation of parents and students, recognizes Garcia, of HISD, because there is only 37000 students in technical courses of instruction, when the universe is 200000.
Garcia says that part of the problem of Latino students is that parents do not seem to be aware that there are many possibilities for training and education for their children (see box 2). It adds that some Hispanic parents believe that the educational options for their children are unattainable.
Aaron Brener, coordinator of the primary system KIPP, which has 65 charter schools in Houston and other U.S. cities, asserts that it is essential to instil in children from an early age the idea of entering and completing college. KIPP, like YES, are charter schools, public education centres, run by private bodies nonprofit.
Brener said that at KIPP children have 8 hours daily academic class, instead of the 5 that normally exist in a regular school.
The classrooms of primary KIPP Shin Prep have the name of a university in U.S. or americas America and the children carry on the shirt in the year to be graduating from high school and going to go to college.
"We try to create a culture here so that students are enthusiastic about going to college since kindergarten, we talk about this from day one," says Deborah Shifrin, director of the Shin primary KIPP Prep, in southwest Houston.
