Bill Clinton: “You know, I think this is so important because we as a nation, we for many years made a strict sort of division between…”

“You know, I think this is so important because we as a nation, we for many years made a strict sort of division between a world of school and a world of work, and even within school between academic courses and vocational courses. And now all those lines are blurring, and that's a very good thing. You know, for example, some people learn better, learn academic subjects better in practical settings. We know that--we also know that the world of work and the world of learning can no longer be easily divided, because people have to keep learning at work for a lifetime. And one of the problems that I saw first when I was a Governor, working with both businesses and schools, and then when I became President, is that we have no real system in our country for acquainting young people with the world of work and moving them easily into the world of work. And I think it will strengthen their academic performance. That would be my guess. And I think it will also ultimately, therefore, be in the interest of the business community as well to have these kinds of programs. I thank you very much for your work you're doing. [Senator John Glenn asked about training for prospective mentors, and Ms. Mazuka described the mentor training program. Mr. Pepper explained that Federal funds were used for the job training pilot program and said he doubted the program would have been started if that money was not available. He then introduced Jan Leslie, Partners in Education director, who described the program to match companies with public and private schools to provide mentoring, tutoring, and assistance in developing curriculum and restructuring school business operations. She noted that public schools were able to decrease their administrative staffs by 50 percent as a result.]”