Two by two, the students sit at tables in what once was a medical clinic. Next door to the single classroom is their break room. Down the hall, a conference room awaits more permanent furniture.
Much about the Tosa School of the Trades says “work” – not just the building, but the charter school’s curriculum as well.
“We want to be kind of almost like a job, because what we’re working on is employability skills as well as 21st century skills,” said Principal Jason Zurawik, who doubles as an associate principal at Wauwatosa East High School.
The Wauwatosa School District’s newest school, which opened this year to 14 students in the basement of a district building on W. North Ave., represents a resurgence of the idea of the vocational high school. Like those schools of old, its students learn trade skills alongside core subjects such as English, math, social studies and science.
But Zurawik also sees the school as training students in what educators refer to as 21st century skills – problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, self-direction – that will allow them to adapt to different jobs later on.
And as a result, its teachers see the school as the way education should be heading.