On that day, Xiaoming went back to his room alone, closed the door and sit at his desk in a daze, with the vague sound of arguing hanging over behind the door. The situation makes him feel awkward since it has become the only arguing topic in his family those days and the problem remained unsettled. To be honest, he himself was also hesitating to decide his own fate.
　　The score of Xiaoming’s college entrance examination was not as satisfying as expected and it could only offer him a vocational institute instead of college according to the cut-off line. Thus, the families’ attitudes differ a lot on the issue of choosing a suitable college. Xiaoming’s father, who is a typical traditional and strict Chinese father, dreamed of sending him to a good university, at least a qualified junior college. He suggested Xiaoming to restudy for a year to enter a good university. Holding the opposite attitude, his mother didn’t want her son to be too stressful under such high pressure. In her mind, entering a junior college is unsatisfied but at least acceptable.
　　XIaoming’s uncle, who strongly recommended him to go to a vocational college of civil aviation so that he could be expertise in a certain major, which would offer him a certain job in an airport or airline company after graduation. But his parents hold the different thoughts. Firstly, the quality of non-publicly funded vocational institutes is not as reliable as colleges, and this kind of college limit the occupation choice. Under such disagreement between Xiaoming’s families, he felt lost and confused to decide whether he is suitable for vocational college.
　　那天，小明默默地走回自己的房间，关上门，坐在书桌前发呆，门外隐约还传来家人们的争论声。他觉得很尴尬，因为自己的上学问题成为了家人这几天唯一的议题，而且目前尚未有决定。说实话，当时小明自己也不知道该选择哪条路。
　　高考成绩刚出来，小明的分数并不是十分如意，按照分数线来看，他可能仅仅能上一所不太好的大专院校而已。家里人在小明择校问题上产生了巨大的分歧。小明的父亲是一个典型的中国严父，他希望孩子能考上一所好的学校，哪怕就是大专，也要考上好点的大专，或者再努努力，上个二类本科也好，他问小明是否愿意再努力一年，再考一次。小明的母亲心疼孩子的备考压力，尽管她也认为大学一定要上，但她觉得反正都是大学，差一点的大专也没关系，毕竟复读之路太艰苦。小明的大伯在这件事上一直坚持让小明去报一所民航类的高职院校，将来毕业了，也有一门专业在手，可以去机场或者航空公司就职。但小明父母却不太乐意让孩子报考这类学校，他们觉得首先民办院校不靠谱，其次，这样的专业性院校会限制孩子以后的就业选择。小明家族成员渐渐地变成两派，一派支持就读这类专业性较强的学校，另一派则提出反对。小明自己也不知道自己是否适合就读这类专业性较强的学校。
　　Actually, this kind of disagreement between families has occurred once after Xiaoming’s high school entrance exam. Though his score was not good enough to enter a good senior high school, his family spent some sponsorship fee and managed him to enter one. Some of his fellow friends who hadn’t reach a satisfying achievement turned to go to vocational college instead of junior high school. 　　Xiaodong, one of Xiaoming’s neighbors, chose to study western-food cooking in a well-known vocational college. It is acknowledged that most of the graduates of this major have a promising career future. This college is recommended by one of Xiaodong’s remote relatives, who works in a famous hotel in Shanghai as the chief of western food. Just as similar as the situation, Xiaoming’s uncle wishes he go to the vocational college of civil aviation to have a good job. Considering all the factors, Xiaoming’s mother tends to stand by his uncle’s side and prefer the vocational college. However, his father, strongly show his objection toward it, he thinks it’s too risky to escape from high school education and vocational high school limits further career development, which means one has no other choices after graduation.
　　Finally, Xiaoming obeyed the will of his father’s and attended a junior college majoring in computer. Nevertheless, he didn’t like the major and was not performing outstandingly on his major, so after graduation, he was not engaged himself in computer-relevant job after all. Later, he took a training class to learn baking and went to be a patissier for a cake shop. Sometimes, Xiaoming asks himself, what it would be like if he went to study baking right after his graduation from junior high school? He might have become a senior patissier already.
　　Xiaoming is an assumed name which represents a true story of my friend. With the development of the society, more and more young people have the pulse to be educated professionally. Despite the fact universities are instantly expanding their enrollment, the number of students who can take higher education is also very limited, which makes vocational colleges an important supplement to the educational system. What’s more, universities and vocational colleges emphasize on different sides. The former one focuses on comprehensive education which makes the society longing for more professional and technical personnel. In this case, educational education is back to the focus of social concern again. Nowadays, parents treat occupational education with a different attitude, but the opinion of Xiaoming’s parents on occupational education is representative and could be regarded as an epitome of our society.
　　而事实上，这类论战在小明初中毕业那年就已经出现过一次了。小明的中考成绩也不是很理想，但小明还是通过交赞助费上了一所普通的高中。而那年和小明一起中考失败的同学们，有一部分人选择放弃继续上普通高中，转而去报了职业高中。小明的邻居小东就选择了去一所职高学西餐烹饪，那是一所业内知名的职高，里面的西餐烹饪专业学生大多数毕业后都有良好的就业去向。就像小明的大伯了解民航就业状况，希望他报民航院校一样，小东的一个远方亲戚在上海某知名大酒店当西餐大厨，他向小东一家推荐了那所职高。小明妈妈听完小东家人的介绍后，确实也有点心动了，要不要让儿子也报这个职高？小明爸爸听完以后，表示了强烈的反对，他觉得这不是在开玩笑，好好的高中不上，以后出去就真的只能当厨子了。
　　小明最后还是选择了听从父亲的话，上了一所普通的大专，学了计算机专业，但毕业后，小明也没有从事任何与计算机相关的工作，他说自己不喜欢，专业也不够突出，在这个领域不好找工作。他参加了半年的西点培训班，现在小明在一家蛋糕店做一名蛋糕师傅。有时候小明也会问自己：如果初中毕业那年就去职高学西点，现在会不会已经成为高级西点师了呢？
　　小明是一个虚拟的名字，但小明的故事却是我身边的一个真实故事。随着社会的发展，越来越多的年轻人有接受更多教育的愿望，但尽管大学每年都在扩招，能接受高等教育的人数比例也是有限的，职业教育就成为了一个补充。再者，大学强调综合教育，专业性技术人才也成为一个缺口，这个时候，职业教育又重新回到了社会关注的焦点当中。现在家长们看待职业教育的态度各有不同，但小明家人们对职业教育的看法，也可以看做是社会对于职业教育看法的一个缩影了。