On the dry-erase board is the phrase of the day:

“If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?”

Good question. Some people take a lifetime mulling it. But in one semester, Gail Wood is going to give direction for those about to make crucial steps.

Wood teaches a class at Midway High School called Career Connections. Originally called freshman orientation, it’s been a requirement for many years. Now the ongoing crush of state mandates is causing Midway to have to adjust and make it optional.

Too bad. If ever there were something you’d want every student to take, this is it.

“There’s a lot to this, and nobody’s going to tell it to you but me,” Wood tells her students.

On this day they are sticking their toes into the process of applying for and getting accepted for higher education.

They’ve done something online called “career cruising” to examine occupational clusters and what kinds of education or training they require. They will tour all of the technology and trade classes at Midway High.

Wood portrays post-secondary education as one ought, as the means of keeping a person’s options open for rewarding things.

“The most important thing you can have in life is options,” she tells the students.

They pull out a map — an allegorical one, yes — that shows generally what successful people do. Provided by the Princeton Review, the College Road Map takes one through the steps of applying for college, financial aid and more.

It’s got many parts — FAFSA, PSAT, SAT, college application essays.

“Who do you think is going to be chasing you around to do all that?” Wood asks her students “Nobody — NO-body.”

Then there are the academic requirements. Not everyone who aspires to be an Aggie or Longhorn, or to wear the Harvard crimson, can. “It’s a contest,” Wood tells the students. “Just because you want to go there doesn’t mean you will.”

But options — there’s that word again — are plentiful to get people where they want to go in life, smaller universities, community colleges, trade and technical schools. Waco has a gem in Texas State Technical College. And financial aid options are there, too.

The Career Connections class is, to these ears, the essence of education — real-world advice about real-world matters facing every American.

It does not, however, fit into the world of school “accountability” as constructed by policy makers. As such, as with other pursuits, it stands to be crowded out by state mandates.

The Texas Legislature has required four years of high school math and science for every student. That sounds good on paper. But here’s where the rubber hits the road.

Implementing this rule, with the crush of other scheduling obligations students have, has caused Midway to change Career Connections from mandatory to elective next fall.

Wood estimates the change might mean only half as many students will take the class, opting for other electives. Maybe that’s OK. Some of those students will get the advice they need at home and from the guidance counselor.

For some who don’t know where they’re going, though, that extra math or science class won’t get them there.

John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.