Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System
    The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System
    The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System
    Ebook146 pages2 hours

    The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System

    By Tom Friedemann and Bob Burke

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Oklahoma has long been recognized for its premier career-tech education system. The difference between Oklahoma’s system and those in other states is its unique form of governance and funding not found anywhere else in the country. To make this visionary system possible an amendment to the Oklahoma constitution was required. Amending Oklahoma’s constitution was not an easy task and required support from both republicans and democrats, the governor, both houses of the legislature, the public and private sectors as well as the media. Such bipartisan cooperation seems unrealistic in today’s polarized political climate, but it happened in 1966 because of the courageous and unselfish leadership of a few outstanding Oklahomans who had a vision of how their state could accomplish something in education that would be the envy of the nation. All the stars had to align themselves in just the right way to make it possible. This is how it happened.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchway Publishing
    Release dateFeb 5, 2024
    ISBN9781665747059
    The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History: The Story Of Oklahoma's Premiere Career-Tech System
    Author

    Tom Friedemann

    Tom Friedemann spent forty-nine years as a career-tech educator. He began his career as a high school marketing education teacher and completed it as a superintendent of a tech center. He has authored numerous manuscripts on career-tech education that have been featured in state, national and international publications and is a sought-after speaker on the subject. He has twice testified before the U.S. Congress on workforce education. He earned both his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from Oklahoma State University and a master’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. He is a passionate flyfisher and has authored two books on fishing; If It Were Easy, They’d Call It Catchin’ and Bent Poles, Happy Souls.

    Read more from Tom Friedemann

    Related to The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History

    Related ebooks

    Careers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Why Science Needs Diversity

      Feb 15, 2023

      created by Nautilus’ marketing team For the month of February, the Nautilus Marketing Team will feature interviews with organizations and institutions working to increase opportunities for young Black people to imagine and succeed in STEM career path

      5 min read

    • Article

      Heal Thyself

      Aug 26, 2020

      Heal Thyself
      6 min read

    • Article

      Trump And Universities In Fight Over Free Speech, Federal Research Funding

      Mar 22, 2019

      The president signed an executive order on Thursday conditioning research grants on "compliance with the First Amendment."

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Word

      Dec 31, 2018

      If there is a nobility within the capitalist project, it is that the whole edifice is built on aspiration. It teaches that the aspirations of the individual will benefit the majority; the greatest benefit arises from everyone striving for themselves.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Storm Clouds Over Tulsa

      Apr 17, 2019

      Storm Clouds Over Tulsa
      12 min read

    • Article

      Learning The Wrong Lesson

      Sep 1, 2020

      Learning The Wrong Lesson
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Commons

      Jun 21, 2020

      The Commons
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Diverse Federal Scientific Workforce Benefits All of Us

      Nov 7, 2023

      The US federal scientific workforce should reflect the diversity of the population it serves. UCS has suggestions for how to get there.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Affirmative Action Back in the Spotlight

      Aug 4, 2017

      More than a decade after his death, Arthur Fletcher's contribution to American society is embroiled in controversy. In 1969, this civil servant laid the blueprint for affirmative action as applied by the first Republican administration to accept it.

      3 min read

    • Article

      When Institutions Are Used As Stages, People Lose Trust, Book Argues

      Jan 30, 2020

      We now think of institutions less as formative and more as performative, less as molds of our character and more as platforms for us to stand on and be seen, says National Affairs Editor Yuval Levin.

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History - Tom Friedemann

      Copyright © 2024 Tom Friedemann.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

      Archway Publishing

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.archwaypublishing.com

      844-669-3957

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      ISBN: 978-1-6657-4704-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-6657-4706-6 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-6657-4705-9 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2023913325

      Archway Publishing rev. date: 02/06/2024

      To Bruce, Larry, Gus, Francis,

      Arch, Roy, and Lucille.

      CONTENTS

      Foreword

      Acknowledgments

      Chapter 1   How It All Began

      Chapter 2   Now the Leg Work Begins

      Chapter 3   So, When Was a Contest Ever Held?

      Chapter 4   Evolution of the System

      Chapter 5   The Path to Becoming a Tribal Elder

      Bibliography

      FOREWORD

      Tom Friedemann has captured both the spirit and the heart of the development of the career-tech system in Oklahoma. Even the book title, The Stars Aligned And The Rest Is History, perfectly illustrates what happened in the 1960s when Congress made federal funds available for states to establish a new system of learning: the much-needed vocational education system. Tom is eminently qualified to tell this story because he spent forty-nine years as a career-tech educator.

      However, Oklahoma would not have been a national leader in building a model system of what we then called vo-tech schools without strong leaders. The cast is a who’s who in education lore at any level. Oklahoma’s second Republican governor, Dewey Bartlett, was elected on the promise to establish schools to create jobs that kept children at home after high school. Vo-tech schools fit his agenda perfectly. J.B. Perky, a close friend of Robert S. Kerr, the uncrowned king of the United States Senate, was the State Director of Vocational-Technical Education. Francis Tuttle left his job as school superintendent in Muskogee to parent the new system. State Representative Lonnie Abbott, a power in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and a strong supporter of education, agreed to author the bill asking state voters to approve a constitutional amendment allowing for the creation of vo-tech school districts and raise the property tax to support them.

      The people of Oklahoma were the last star to align. Oklahomans generally are not in favor of higher taxes, but a slight majority of them were in 1966. During the May runoff election, voters approved State Question 434 to allow one or more school districts to form a single vocational district. Local boards would be responsible for building and maintaining area vo-tech schools. It was a slim margin, 51 to 49 percent, but the state constitution was amended, and the rest is history.

      I was honored to work with one of the stars that aligned, Dr. Francis Tuttle. While I was in law school, I was director of the state agency that became the Department of Commerce. Dr. Tuttle (I would never call him Francis, even though he insisted that I do so) was a kind but powerful voice for training both high schoolers and adults to qualify for new jobs created because of the presence of a trained workforce. Dr. Tuttle was such a respected leader, the room became quiet when he entered. His opinion was widely heralded, not only in the state but across the nation.

      Career-tech education has been one of the reasons Oklahoma has attracted major expansion of existing businesses and relocation of out-of-state companies for more than half a century since a group of visionary leaders took action to create the stars that fortunately aligned.

      Bob Burke, Attorney, Author, Historian

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I would like to express my appreciation to the following, who all contributed in one way or another to this book.

      • Cindy Friedemann, my wife, was my cheerleader in completing this project and provided valuable input and advice. Cindy also provided editing assistance.

      • Craig Maile and Gina Hubbard were invaluable contacts with the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. Craig also provided editing assistance.

      • Denton Blevins, Carol Fadaiepour, and Brenda Hoover were invaluable contacts with the Francis Tuttle Technology Center. A special thanks to Carol for locating a missing file of historical documents that I used as reference materials in this book.

      • Suzette Northcutt Rhodes, long-time board member at the Francis Tuttle Technology Center, who I teamed with on many occasions to deliver career-tech culture sessions to our new employees at Francis Tuttle. Her book Francis Tuttle, The School is a real historical treasure.

      • Dr. Roy Peters, former State Director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, reviewed some of the early chapters of this book and assured me I was on the right track.

      • Beth Little and Marty Lewis, former superintendents at the Gordon Cooper Technology Center, and Dr. Greg Winters, former superintendent at Eastern Oklahoma County, Kiamichi, and Canadian Valley Technology Centers, reviewed excerpts of this book for accuracy.

      • Dazsa Carter and Lorri Carlile with the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education (OKACTE) I thank for booking speaking engagements for me to talk to career-tech educators all over the state about Oklahoma career-tech history. These would, on many occasions, lead someone in the audience to comment, You should write a book!

      • Judie Harris, the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent when I was at the Francis Tuttle Technology Center, provided invaluable assistance in developing the Power Point presentation that served as the basis for my speeches on Oklahoma career-tech history.

      • Donna Metcalf is the only person I know who was in the Oklahoma career-tech system longer than I was. The stories she accumulated from her many years at the Western and Kiamichi Technology Centers and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education were often shared with me and are truly historical gems.

      CHAPTER ONE

      HOW IT ALL

      BEGAN

      Contextually, this history is written in a slightly different manner than any previous career-tech histories the reader may have read in the past. Instead, much of it is based on tribal stories that were told to me by my mentors (i.e., tribal elders). As a result, some of the stories I’ve included in this book may have some naturally engrained enhancements provided by enthusiastic storytellers. They may have chosen to make the stories a little more entertaining to keep the history alive and well for future generations. Of course, this is not all that dissimilar to what might have taken place when Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, or African tribespeople sought to perpetuate their cultures. They didn’t have the luxury of a written language. Therefore, they had to rely on their remarkable memories to hand down tribal history told to them for centuries by their elders. Back then, a critical, culture-saving story may have been communicated with key members of the tribe gathered around a fire. Perhaps they talked about challenges they may have encountered following a successful hunt or a battle won against a rival tribe across the river.

      To a degree, the same thing still happens today. Instead of a campfire, these stories may originate around the office water cooler and begin with the opening line Did you hear what happened yesterday in Senator Smith’s office? Such were the stories based on fact, but not necessarily backed by legal documents that could be obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request. Nonetheless, these stories were critical to them. Storytelling served as the way to assure that these stories would never be lost for the preservation of the tribe. Tribal storytelling is still recognized as an essential way to ensure the survival of modern organizations.

      Peter Guber, with the Harvard Business Review, describes it this way.

      We can trace it back thousands of years to the days of the shaman around the tribal fire. It was he who recorded the oral history of its great heroes, of its triumphs and tragedies. The life-or-death lessons necessary to perpetuate the community’s survival were woven into these stories.¹

      Ursula K. LeGuin said it this way.

      The story—from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace, is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.²

      The Oklahoma career-tech story is quite amazing. It was handed down to me by Larry Hansen shortly after I accepted the position of State Coordinator for Area Vo-Tech Schools with the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education in Stillwater. Larry Hansen, Assistant State Director for the state agency and my boss, was asked to give a presentation to a civic club in Altus, Oklahoma about career-tech in Oklahoma. He developed a severe case of laryngitis the day before he was to drive to Altus to deliver the speech. He called me into his office and asked if I would be willing to give the speech in his place. I was in my early thirties at the time and had been at that position for only a month. I was at a complete loss as to how I was going to be an adequate substitute for a person with so many years of experience. In addition, he had been one of Francis Tuttle’s right-hand guys in developing the system of area vo-tech schools. Of course, I said yes, but communicated to Larry that I had some strong concerns about whether I could do the job at a standard I knew they were expecting in Altus. Larry, in his typical easy-going manner, said, Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that too much, Tom. I’ll just give you my personal notes and you can speak from those. What Larry gave me was a three-page outline written in pencil on a legal-size yellow tablet.

      I drove to Altus the following day and gave the speech. Evidently, it was good enough. From that point on, it seemed to be my job whenever some group wanted a representative from the state agency to talk about career-tech. Sometimes, you have to jump off the cliff and grow your wings on the way down. That’s what I certainly found myself doing that fateful day in Altus, Oklahoma.

      I’m not sure whatever happened to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1