With Detroit's unofficial unemployment rate nearing 50%, Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men is one of four public high schools that have decided to change its classroom courses for the 21st Century. Now, time will be used to train 60 students to work as employees for Wal-Mart.

The new partnership will give participants 11 weeks of on-and-off-the-job-training, as students also will work at the retail goliath after school.  Those who choose this opportunity will earn 10 credits toward their high school graduation, and possibly employment with Wal-Mart.

Sean Vann, principal of the Frederick Douglass Academy, enthusiastically believes that the opportunity will help curb the exploding unemployment gap. While attempting to fix the unemployment rate is commendable, is Wal-Mart, with its documented history of workers' rights violations, the best place for our students to be?