Editorial: Suburban schools would be eye-opening for education secretary DeVos

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had a tough week last week.

She kicked it off with a universally panned 60 Minutes interview which called into question her knowledge of the state of education in the country, ending with a meek admission that perhaps she should visit some of the public schools in her home state of Michigan.

She later got into hot water when she tweeted then-and-now pictures (the "now" was a stock photo anyone could find on the internet) of "traditional" classrooms, saying not much has changed in the public schools in decades.

Really? The suburbs take pride in their schools and the many that we have been fortunate to visit have been anything but traditional. If DeVos wants to understand what's truly going on in the public schools, a visit here would do her wonders.

That's what Illinois Superintendent of Schools Tony Smith did this week when he visited Wheeling High School's manufacturing lab along with local business owners. And he was impressed.

"The ability to problem solve is going to be more important than ever," Smith told the students after seeing what they had been working on - some of it NASA related.

According to Daily Herald staff writer Chacour Koop, the school recently doubled the size of its lab as part of an effort to meet high demand for skilled labor. A $150,000 donation from HydraForce, a manufacturing company based in Lincolnshire, is paving the way for four new industrial robots.

"We are making education not only relevant to our students, but making our school relevant to our community," Wheeling High School Principal Jerry Cook said.

Indeed, the school's manufacturing and automated technology program was advertised as a pitch to attract Amazon's HQ2 second headquarters to the Northwest suburbs, showing that local schools are training the workers of tomorrow in up-to-date and useful technology.

It's exciting to see high schools teach real-world needs and skills so that college-bound and non-college bound students can succeed once they graduate.

"If someone tells me they can't find a job, it's unfortunate because they probably don't have the skill set for all the jobs that are out there," said Kevin Clay, the manager of a Schaumburg manufacturer who spoke to the students and said his company alone has 290 job openings.

Yes, this kind of teaching is a far cry from the old-school wood and metal shops or the traditional classroom experience cited by DeVos. We look forward to her visit.