A young lady I know recently had an opportunity for a job promotion. She'd been working part time while going to school studying to be an art teacher. The promotion was to full time as the manager of the office in which she'd been working. For several days she was back and forth about what to do. To accept the promotion would cause her to delay college graduation. It was a real delight to hear she'd decided to take the promotion... an even greater delight to listen to a kid, still just a kitten by any measure, say this would allow her to support herself without relying on parents or student loans, add to her job skills, make her more versatile, and to hear her plan for finishing college.
A friend's son once worked a summer job at a tire store. It was nasty, dirty, greasy work but for a 17 year old kid who wanted to learn about cars it was a blessing in disguise. As we all sat around talking about work and college and jobs and skills valuable to an employer one evening, I couldn't help it, I had to start picking and asked how changing tires related to his goal to be an engineer. His response made Daddeo go over and hug him; "It's a hard process Roy, it really is. I work my (tushi) off for eight bucks an hour and it's horrible. But hey, it just makes me want a better job that much more." But even today, a mechanical engineering student, a nuts and bolts guy, he still doesn't appreciate that old saying from the project management world... during the course of every project, there comes a time when everyone wants to shoot the engineer. He is, though, paying as he goes with income from a little business he started in his spare time so his student loan balance doesn't become exorbitant.
All work is honorable work.
Contrast these with those who would run up a tab of 10s, or even 100s, of thousands of dollars in student loans, then protest because they can't find anyone who will pay for those degrees in dance, art, basket weaving, or what ever else their little old hearts desire. How does a master of fine arts degree pay the light bill and put food on the table?
I used to give a book to friends' kids when they graduated high school; Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow. After a while I had to add a disclaimer that we must also support ourselves while we do as Elvis suggested... follow that dream.
If we listen to academe, they'll tell us everyone needs to have a college education. But don't they also have a vested interest? After all, more college studii means more tuition dollars paid... and higher incomes to individual institutions. And the campus construction just keeps rolling on...
To be sure, not all educators, not true educators, take this stance. True educators understand we don't necessarily need to go to college if we receive an adequate education in our first 12 years of school. Do we need a college education to, for example, become a welder or pipe-fitter? Not hardly. Many of our trades don't require a college degree to become not just proficient, but excellent.
When TVA began completion work on unit 2 at Watts Bar Nuclear Facility we were told they had jobs for 600 electricians that couldn't be filled between Knoxville and Chattanooga. Not quite two years ago I was told, by a carpetbagging welder, there were over 750 long term jobs available and unfilled for certified welders within a 50 mile radius of Chattanooga... just through the union hall. There were more non-union jobs to be had.
Try to find a machinist, a real machinist, who's under 40. I don't mean a CNC machine operator, although these must be proficient in order to keep up with production. I mean someone who can lay out, then chuck up, a hunk of metal in a Bridgeport or LeBlonde and hand back, for example, an armature for an antique motor that has to fit in a hole with an air gap of only two thousandths of an inch. I know a guy in California who enjoys time on his sail boat. In his free time he manufactures a pneumatic hand pump that's less expensive than most that're made on CNC machines. I work with an electronic technician who put his kids through college then paid off his home mortgage making a metal insert for a piece of equipment we service, in his spare time, and a lot less expensively than those available from any of the original equipment manufacturers.
The average age of power company linemen, nation wide, is 50 years old. Some will complain when the power goes out, but where are the young folks standing in line to enter that career field? There are other occupations, many others, with similar employee issues.
But still we're told there's no need for industrial arts programs in our schools... by academics. One must wonder how many of those are like a PhD physicist dude with whom I once worked on a project, who took up auto racing, and did a great deal of his own mechanical work. Not that we worked on a research project or anything. Lawd, I'd hate for The Commish to think someone besides him has ever done that sort of stuff. Gosh, he wouldn't be able to look down his nose any more. But then again, maybe he would.
Do what you love and the money will follow... how is a kid to do what he or she loves when they aren't aware of the possibilities? But rather than encourage trades and other programs that allow our children and grandchildren to expand their horizons, truly expand their horizons instead of teaching that capitalism is a horrible system, they'll spend budget money on new buildings when the old ones are perfectly fine. They'll build new parking lots while thumping their chests over green energy compliance of those new buildings... and complaining about the number of BubbaMobiles and YuppyMobiles on the highways. They'll implement unproven, experimental academic programs while, at the same time, denigrating programs that teach real work skills. One must also wonder how the iPads The Commish wants to give second graders will hold up. Does he understand those LCD displays are glass?
I just figured out why, as a young whipper, it was so easy to earn so much money installing stereos, washers, dryers, and other appliances for college professors and other "professionals." But then, who's the winner... the person interested in going to the bank with cash in hand to deposit or the one with status, and bills?
Aw, man... I think I just made a quiche for lunch by accident, again. I hate when this happens. Some of the guys already rag on me because the pinkie finger I broke as a kid sticks out when I drink coffee. If this keeps up they're going to start calling me FooFoo with the FruFru.
Maybe they'll believe it's a mushroom and pepper and rosemary and onion and garlic and olive and Italian sausage and cheese scrambled egg pie with no crust...
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org
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Who says that all education should be based on getting a job? There is much more to education than learning precise skills to fit into a particular corporation or industry.
Education needs to be well-rounded. That provides a student with the tools to think critically about many subjects that confront us throughout our lives. I agree it is risky to take out large loans for certain careers and default on them because the job market in that field is weak.
Then again, it is unfortunate that tuition fees have actually increased 400 percent since the 1970s. It is dangerous to consider and gear education courses only to fill a particular position or job. And yes, vocational-technical schools have their place in those cases. But to forego the arts, literature, philosophy, and other humanities to placate business and their labor needs will ultimately create worker drones that when their positions are replaced by technology or poor management decisions, they will be cast aside to again try and start over. We are not necessarily what we do but who we are.
Greg Williams
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Research constantly shows that those with college degees are less likely to be unemployed, less likely to be incarcerated, and are likely to make almost a million dollars more in a lifetime. For those with advanced degrees the numbers are even greater. Having a college education gives one more choices and makes it possible to change career paths as opportunities arise.
But college education is not just job training. In a democracy, every citizen must be informed and able to understand complex ideas and issues in order to participate meaningfully in the election process and have a voice in the kind of nation we will be.
If we know this is true, how can we do anything less than have high expectations and provide quality education for all students.
Catherine Murray
Retired School Counselor
Chattanooga