Charles Tracy likes Illinois, and he’s lived in the state all of his life. He grew up in Olney and went to college at Eastern Illinois University, majoring in math and physics education. With his new degree in hand, he began his long teaching career in Bradley, where he’s taught for 31 years.
For 29 straight years, Charles taught math in the same room at Bradley Central Middle School. Although he enjoyed teaching math, he felt he needed a change. When the job of Facilitator at the new Career Module Lab came open two years ago, he applied. He got the job, and has been glad he did ever since.
“Not a day goes by in the Lab without something exciting happening. Some student will have one of those special ‘Oh, wow!’ moments. It wasn’t like that teaching math. Now we’re working hard, but I’m really having fun.”
The State of Illinois has gotten into the “school-to-career movement” in a big way. Education to Careers centers are being established all over the state, functioning as liaisons with schools and area businesses, training students in real-world job skills, assessing student vocational interests, and tailoring coursework to the interest and skills requirements of selected occupations. The Bradley Middle School Career Module Lab is the only such facility in the large area of the state it serves. All of the approximately 500 Bradley students are required to take a 9-week course in the Lab each of the three years of their Bradley attendance. Moreover, such is the Lab’s popularity, that it serves a number of non-Bradley students, including the 8th-graders from a nearby school and students from a private parochial school in the area.
The central tool of the Lab is the ScanTEK program with Valpar’s CareerTEK. When students complete each of the 16 ScanTEK modules, they go into CareerTEK and spend from one to five days with it. “It’s well structured, well written,” said Tracy. “The kids like it. They get excited about it.”
“At that age, 11 to 13 or so, all the boys plan to be professional football players, and all of the girls want to be cheerleaders,” chuckled Tracy. As they experience CareerTEK and see some of the occupations their demonstrated interests and abilities point to, they often come to understand there’s more out there, and that they might not wind up actually becoming football players or cheerleaders. “’Oh, I’m glad I looked at that…it gives me something else to think about,’ is a typical student response,” Tracy said. “Most of them are still a bit too young to be seriously considering their adult careers, if left to go their own way. The Lab starts the process, plants a seed. They’ll be that much ahead of the game down the road. Now, they suddenly realize they’d better spend more time studying their math or English or whatever because they see that the occupations they like require it. The 8th-graders especially begin to focus on the courses they’ll need to take in high school, and they check out whether those courses are offered.”
“We stress work place skills enhancement in the Lab,” said Tracy. “Following directions, problem-solving, working well with partners or on a team. Those skills are as important for success as the knowledge and physical skills needed to do a job. Kids come in with low self-esteem, no self-confidence. But with a little success, they turn around completely. I see miracles all the time. I’ve seen special needs kids actually helping gifted students who were struggling with some particular thing.”
As he approaches retirement, he has no plans to leave Illinois or the Bradley area. “I coach the girls’ basketball team,” said Tracy. “I’d like to keep on doing so after I retire. And by then, I’ll probably be about the only one around qualified to substitute in the Lab. I’m having such a good time. I only wish I could’ve done this years ago.”