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Editor’s note: Our series of guest blogs in which accomplished teachers offer ideas for how to spend stimulus funds concludes with Susan Graham's thoughts. The opinions she expresses are, of course, her own and do not necessarily represent those of LFA or its member organizations.

This series also includes contributions from Ariel Sacks, Heather Wolpert-Gawron and Mary Tedrow.

Bob Woodruff, the ABC news correspondent who suffered traumatic brain injury in Iraq, didn’t plan to be a journalist. In a recent address to students he recalled that he took a pay cut when he went into journalism, but he went on to say, "I really believe in doing what you want to do. Especially at a young age, do what your heart tells you to do."

What does this have to do with innovative efforts in public school? Before stumbling into journalism, Woodruff spent four years in college and four years in law school. The vast majority of our children cannot afford to make that kind of an investment in education that does not lead to satisfying employment. Neither can our country.

The Alliance for Excellent Education recently projected that one third of our current ninth graders will drop out before completing high school. Another third will graduate, but do so with neither the academic knowledge for college nor the job skills for employment. Only 18% of those who do earn a high school diploma will complete a postsecondary associate or baccalaureate program within six years.

Yet we continue to measure high school success in terms of SAT scores and college acceptance. And while some kind of postsecondary education may be a prerequisite for most jobs that lead to financial security, the majority of those jobs require an industry certification, licensure or an associate degree, not a four-year baccalaureate program.

MY PROPOSED STIMULUS INVESTMENT: If the majority of jobs do not require a degree and the majority of students do not earn a degree, isn’t it time to reconsider whether the primary goal of public education should be preparing students for college acceptance? Isn’t it time to invest in initiatives that rethink our approach to preparing young people for post-secondary education and life itself?

High school programs that wrap academic content around career strands are working because they offer students good return on their education investment; connecting learning to marketable skills. But, in spite of rigorous academic standards, career programs are often categorized as an alternative. Wouldn’t our youth be better served if high school prepared them to succeed whether or not they chose college?

A massive switch to a career academy format might be a better way to prepare students, but it represents a program-level change that would be costly, complicated, and controversial. Even then it would not be enough to end the dropout crisis, because the decision to drop out is usually already made when at-risk students begin high school.

So what if we restructure middle school? In progressive middle schools, math, science, social science, and language teachers team for integrated instruction weaving their content strands together. Electives tend to be viewed as enrichment activities that occasionally tie content strands into the elective’s project-based applications. Ironically, while academic teachers take pride in hands-on activities that engage students (and impress parents and administrators) their culminating projects often look a lot like everyday instruction in an elective classroom.

So what if we turned the process on its head? Instead of attempting to tie core curriculum together, what if we began with the engaging project in the elective class and then picked out the individual threads of academic concepts we wanted to emphasize? Each subject would retain its unique content, but each semester, students would be empowered to choose the elective through which that content was accessed, increasing motivation and relevance.

What would it take? Equipment and consumables would have to be budgeted. Instead of fitting students into a schedule, staffing and schedules would flex around student needs. Adequate common planning time and embedded staff development would be necessary to align lessons. And a more complex (and meaningful) assessment process that measured application as well as recall of knowledge would be needed.

Recent research indicates that middle school is a critical time for turning over education decisionmaking to the student. Young adolescents in the middle grades no longer work for the approval of adults. They start taking control of their own destinies, and if we are to keep them engaged we must do a better job helping students explore their interests, strengths, and choices during the formative middle school years. Today’s middle schoolers perpetually ask, “Why do I need to know this?” We owe them more than “Because it’s on The Test” or “Someday when you grow up you’ll see.” And if we don’t give them more, we will continue to lose them.

Bob Woodruff got lucky when stumbling into his passion. Lucky because, in spite of an extensive and expensive education, he had not really discovered what he wanted to be when he grew up. Most of America’s children are not so fortunate. They cannot afford a costly journey of self-discovery.

They and we need them to become productive citizens. But we kill their ambition and break their spirits when we give them no options. If we want them to succeed, then it’s important to help them explore their choices -- and as they prepare for their future to encourage them “especially at a young age, to do what your heart tells you to do."

Susan Graham has taught middle school family and consumer science for 27 years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, a former regional Virginia teacher of the year, and a past Fellow of the Teacher Leaders Network. Her blog A Place at the Table appears at the Teacher Magazine website.