Above is a link to a Boston Globe story about The Pathways To Prosperity Project done the last 2 years by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (hey I go there) about having more career focused High School tracks such as doing internships and work based learning.  I general like the idea of H.S. students getting more experiential learning opportunities and internships; My 2 biggest concerns are that this would be done instead of and not in conjunction with a high quality general education that gives students plenty of life choice options and that there will be too much funneling into certain paths not only based on the students interests and goals but based on what teachers, guidance counselors, and other school officials want. All that being said, if a student has an interest in being a fire fighter, musician, plumber, teacher, accountant, chief or whatever it would great for students to be able to get first hand experiences in those jobs as well as meeting potential mentors in that career.