From an education blog I favor: I've known firefighters, police officers, Army sergeants and aircraft loaders who held college degrees obtained not for, or not primarily for, career advancement. This is obviously a career oriented site but are there any who have obtained or will obtain a degree just 'cuz? Are there any, aside from the irrepressible Scott, who are not too snobby for shop?
We are also forgetting electricians, plumbers, carpenters, construction workers and welders. Each of these trades requires education and licensing. There is no such thing as a "dumb" construction worker. An experienced tradesperson can earn as much as $100,000 a year. They are required by companies and unions to take courses in Health and Safety, First Aid, Machine Maintenance and Operation, Electricity, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Electronics and Construction Site Management. My dad was a fire truck mechanic (senior mechanic for the City of Toronto). He earned far more than my uncle who taught courses in Computer Science at a local community college.
With a few years of experience, an auto mechanic at a dealership can earn $80,000 a year. But high schools are eliminating auto shop classes. The equipment is costly, industrial tech (shop) teachers are hard to find and students' schedules are filled with college-prep classes. Students assume the only way to make a living is to go to college, but many don't have the motivation or the academic skills to earn a college degree. Only about half of students who enroll in college ever earn a degree; most of those who graduate won't be earning $80,000 a year. I am a licensed machinist both by my British apprenticeship and CGLI and by Ontario Ministry of Skills. It strikes me that if a student lacks the motivation to do a three year college degree it might be reasonable to assume that the same student would also lack the motivation for a four or five year apprenticeship. Apprenticeships take self discipline. I am also a highschool shop teacher. From my experience, what the first writer says is largely true. though I would also add that positions for trades teachers are becoming fewer due to the fact that when the boards fail to fill a position there is a tendency for them to sell the equipment and shut the program down (this has happend several time in my own board in the last four years.) Also tech is used as a dumping ground for identified and low achiving students. There is a snobbery amongs the academics who rule the ministries and schoolboards (though not often amongst principals and teachers) that university/academic pursuits are somhow more authentic than the trades. Yes I watered the gardens of my mind by pursuing higher education but one can also find fulfillment through whatever and any constructive lifestyle that suits the indivdual. I have helped turn the odd life around in my four years of teaching. This is largely due to my welding program for basic level students. However, it got shut down at the end of last semester, and the welding sets and other equipment junked. I now teach at another school in the board. Roy Maybery
But a different type of motivation, I think. And a different mindset with different fears of inadequacy. If I ever do a Ph.D., I'll get laughed off of the planet for giving my full views on that subject. In days of yore (my yore) NYC high schools offered Academic, Vocational and General diplomas. And a few special high schools attended only through competitive exam. Odd how "elitist" egalitarians can be. I don't know where things stand now but the trend was towards placing all on an academic track. To disasterous effect, of course. Yeah, that can indeed be accomplished. The aircraft loaders I worked with for five years were about as declasse as they come. But some, in their other lives, proved quite astute as entrepeneurs or whatever. Don't know how correct are my perceptions but here the trades function seems to have shifted from the high schools to our BOCES schools. By me (New York State) the BOCES center has a high school. I have no idea what is taught there or its reason for being.
Now I like this decimen. South Carolina is like most states having budget problems. The first thing they cut is the vocational school programs. Let's see, what is in the vocational programs? Machine tool, welding, electricity, electronics, building construction, CAD, auto mechanics, diesel mechanics, cosmetology, nursing, food service, masonry, and auto body. We don't need any of these do we? Should we have a place to train these people? Lets push people through school teaching them everything, but a skill. When they hit the real world they will be great to have a conversation with, but we will have to get the German's to build our cars, and the Japanese to build our electronics. But by God my kid better learn Shakespeare! To be skilled? or not to be skilled? That is my question.
I asked a teacher long ago, at the University of Tennessee, about investing in the stock market, his reply, " Do you think I would be teaching if I knew anything about the stock market ?" Since he was teaching us about the stock market at the time, it made an impression. There are those who do and those who say they do. I prefer those who do. It's foolish to eliminate education in skilled trades. There are few enough who can still use their hands to build or repair anything. My small interior home repair business is based on the pathetic skills of people today. They can't fix, paint, plaster, or hook two red wires together, glue two pieces of PVC or CPVC together without it leaking, or nail a couple of 2 x4's together without smashing a thumb. Hey, what am I saying? My business depends on nerds not able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Just everyone keep studying hard and forget learning any physical skills, my bank account needs folks like that.
I don't disparage the value of general education but it is foolish to eliminate what would give students the option of entering a skilled career after high school. The downside, however, to having educational tracks is the tendency of school administrators to channel students, along perceived lines of ability, into particular tracks. But there comes the beauty of the free-wheeling U.S. (free enterprise) system. As some on this board are demonstrating, you can educationally reinvent yourself regardless of where you are at the moment in the working world.
Re: Re: Too snobby for shop I know a former industrial arts teacher. When he would fail a kid, who failed everything else, he was the one who got to hear from the principal "How can anyone fail shop"
