After discussing their MPS education with my son, who graduated from West and who is now a senior at UNL, and my daughter who will be a senior at West, the one thing that seems to be missing in the vast choices in MPS is career exploration. Although my son was offered a tour through HAL in middle school and my daughter has been in the Education Academy, neither felt that they had much exposure to career choices. Both have said it seems that MPS is more focused on the "Essential Assets" which, they stated, like the "DARE" program, is dwelled upon too much and students lose interest after 1 or 2 years of repetitiveness. In high school they would liked to have some exposure to different jobs instead. The "take your child to work day" demonstrates what a parent does-not what the student may actually have an interest in. Although the Academies are on the right track, it is still limited to those who seem to already have some sort of an idea of their futures and are in limited availability. Maybe an elective for a semester-not just 1/2 a day- of shadowing partnering businesses in different fields etc. would be an idea. Speakers would be informative but I believe actually being in a workplace for maybe even 1 block would be helpful-narrow down to 3 after speakers-then actual visits? I remembering after paying for a semester of nursing school, being on the actual floors and even "behind the scenes"- it was not the right fit for me. A costly "tour". This exposure may enable a student to find a path early on and save time and money to "explore" in college-especially in today's economy. It coud also help students who may want to take the technical school path since finding a job after college graduation is also becoming more difficult. I'm sure there are liabilities, costs and other factors associated with this but I feel it is even more important these days to expose a student to different choices earlier in their schooling to prepare them for the real world.