Bridges program lets principal, reporter switch jobs

A program at Warren G. Harding High School helps people from schools, businesses and other sectors learn from one another.
As Harding's principal, I recently participated in our school's annual Bridges Staff Development Day.
Bridges brings into our school individuals from our region's business, university and public sectors to team with teachers and administrators.
Participants visiting the district see firsthand how the high school functions.
Educators leave the classroom to shadow their partners at work to see how what is taught in schools is applied in the real world.
Teachers learn what businesses expect from high school graduates when they enter the work force.
I exchanged jobs with Denise Dick, a Vindicator reporter I have worked with in the past. Dick covers Harding and other schools.
As temporary principal, Dick got a glimpse of how a typical day in the high school flows.
Principals seldom have a schedule. Things just happen, people come to see you, phone calls and e-mails abound. It is a "people job" that can't be scripted.
Day job
As a reporter for an afternoon, I visited the police department to sit in on an interview about a recent police report. I also observed an interview with Tristan Hand, chairperson for the city's traffic committee.
These interviews, along with observing the story development and writing process, were enlightening. Dick and I both work in a business that responds to issues. No two days are alike.
A reporter's job, like many in today's information and technology-laden world, requires flexibility, an openness to change and the ability to work with others, as well as alone.
As a school administrator, I now am better able to reflect on the changes that secondary schools will have to make to the 19th- and early 20th-century education models that currently shape them.
In addition to applying new rigorous academic standards, the American high school must structure itself to give students the skills needed by today's employers.
Helps achieve dreams
The Bridges program is one way that the public and private sectors can work with schools in developing academic and performance standards for students that reflect the needs of the business community.
This is not a vocational project.
We are not talking about a curriculum that prepares students for a specific job.
Rather, we are looking at ways in which students can be exposed to and become familiar with the skills needed to pursue whatever dreams they have for their life after high school.
X William Mullane is principal at Harding High School in Warren.