In the years I’ve spent reporting on education, the closest I’ve come to anything like an epiphany on the subject was when I made my first visit to a college campus.
My first college visit in Scotland was to UHI Inverness, and Glasgow Kelvin College left a lasting impression. When I first came through the door at the Springburn campus for an interview, nothing particularly remarkable stood out immediately.
But past the reception desk and the student café, two huge doors opened up to a series of hallways and classrooms that could only be called classrooms in the most literal sense. Apart from being rooms where classes were held, they were also simulated factories, model homes, auto garages, fashion studios and more.
Even after countless visits like it, the effect blew me away. But it shouldn’t have really, because I’d been primed for it years before. I had a similar experience at the first college I ever visited, back home in the US in Lenoir, North Carolina.
When I first toured the model furniture manufacturing spaces, design rooms, full-size powerline setups, and healthcare........