In her recent article in SPECIAL EDGE, a magazine for educators put out at Sonoma State, Dr. Diana Blackmon discussed helping teens make the transition into adult living. "One of the most interesting things about transition strategies and awareness," she says, "is that they can apply to kids in GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) programs as well as those in RSP (Resource Specialist Programs--one of the more common types of Special Education). This integration of general high school course work with instruction and activities that prepare students for the world of work is often called school-to-work or school-to-career programming; and a school that incorporates it into its general thinking is helping everyone." Kids don't suddenly turn into people who know how to:

• Make difficult decisions
• Maintain health and safety
• Live on a budget
• Vote
• Set long-term goals
• Assume the full legal responsibilities of adulthood.

To help them, Dr. Blackmon argues for this set of interactions:

• Self-awareness
• Career preparation
• Work experience
• Community support

This first article in a series suggests tools for the first of these.

Three tools she suggests are available in one place. If you're up for a $6 book purchase, you can get them in hard copy. If you have time for a long slow download, you can print them out. If, like most of us, what's possible is whatever's the simplest, use the shortcuts I suggest here.

Go to http://www.californiacareers.info/resources.html In the middle of the first page, on the right, click on Back to Index. From the Index, select Career Tests and Inventories. I can vouch for two of them as well worth your time: 15 minutes' total, for both. Here are the ones to look at:

The Career Key is a free self-test of skills, abilities, and interests put together by Dr. Laurence K. Jones of North Carolina State University. (He's the author of a book that's a takeoff on the old Parachute book--it's called **What Color Are Your Feathers?**) It took eight minutes to get my self-assessment scores in each of six categories. Then clicking those categories gave me, for each, a list of possible jobs to consider. Putting a check in front of each one that held some appeal for me gave me, at the end, my "Personal Job Options" list. I could have used this on my first, uh second, well even maybe third job.

The Princeton Review Quiz took five minutes. It had me read 24 pairs of preferences and select one from each pair. The results came color coded with a simple key. It tells me my interest color is green (keyed to marketing, consulting, teaching, public relations.) My usual style is yellow (keyed to structured, loyal, solitary, research-oriented). I'm cautioned to choose a work environment in which this style is welcomed; (with substantial hindsight, this looks pretty good to me).

Now go back to the Index. Select California Training and Education Providers. Ask for San Francisco County, and you will get a list of EVERY post-secondary training entity, public or private, vocational or academic, with location, phone, and contact. It includes information like accreditation and financial aid, which normally I have to hang on the phone to get. If you're seriously beating the bushes for possibilities, it will cut your time in half: you may want to bookmark it..

If you do get the book and find other resources really useful, I hope you'll let me know: jradcli [at] mystudybuddy [dot] org -- I'll keep you posted as Dr. Blackmon continues the series.