What’s Right With Our Schools: Dade County Project Graduation
TRENTON, Ga. (WDEF) – What is life really like in high school? If you are in kindergarten, it can seem like a million years before you’ll be in class with the big kids, but in Dade County the class of 2036 is getting a look into the distant future.
Tonya Gatlin is the CTAE Director at Dade County High School.
She says, “We’re a very small town. These younger kids have high school siblings, and so they talk about it at home. They get to, you know, they anticipate the visit. The teachers at the elementary school kind of talk about it and prepare them ahead of time. And so, when the day finally arrives, they are super excited about it. So, they know, you know, that in however many years and I’m going to be walking through these hallways.”
Mike Beeler is a Mechatronics Pathway teacher.
He explains,” We’re hoping that these kids get excited for the future when they move to the high school and they pick the CTAE programs, getting work ready and everything courses prepare them for that. So, we’re hoping this gets them excited for when they get here.”
Gatlin adds, ” We started project graduation, I don’t know, maybe about twelve years ago. We had to stop during the COVID time. We bring all of our elementary school kids over to Dade County High School to rotate through our CTAE department. They get to visit every single CTAE lab. We make various gifts from our programs for them through the 3d printing, through construction. It’s just a great day for all. A lot of times these kids, they pass by the outside of the school, but they never have the opportunity to actually walk down the hallways to get to see what’s inside of the school building.”
She continues, ” To walk through the hallways and go in and collaborate and work with some of these high school kids. That means a lot to them. And they’re going to remember, oh, I got to go to that healthcare room. Or I got to go pet a goat down in the ag department. I got to look at a hammer. Somebody making something in the construction lab. That’s the things that we know is going to make a difference.”
She concludes, “I want them to remember when they step foot in this building, when they are in high school, when they’re entering on their first day of 9th grade year, that they can remember back to when they were a kindergartner walking through the same hallway close.”
