I went to college. I was the first in my family to do so.
Jobs I held included babysitting, making frozen custard, clerking at a supermarket, sorting metal address plates, anything to earn and save money. I studied very hard with a clear goal in mind, a college education. I wanted to be a teacher and for that, college was essential, but I ask the question, “Should that be the case for all children?” Does everyone need a college education?
Some years ago, while attending a board of education legislative session, Hal Brown, who was then one of the state Assemblymen who represented Central New York, made an impassioned speech about education for those wishing to go into the trades, by which he meant such things as auto mechanics, carpentry, plumbing, welding, cosmetology, food service, medical assisting and the like. These are honorable essential occupations which provide society with needed services and for which a four-year college education isn’t necessary.
A good portion of the population makes some kind of decision about their life’s work while they are in high school. If the “white collar job” is the path that a student wishes to take, then college prep is not only available, but promoted with great enthusiasm. High schools are often measured by how many of their graduates have been accepted to college.
The education needed for each “trade” varies with state licensure rules as well as the degree of time, experience and complexity needed to become competent in that field. Some are learn-on-the-job occupations and some require formal training.
Most public and private high schools are not in a position to offer coursework or experiences that will prepare youth for jobs in the “trades.” New York state has BOCES, a parallel system of educational and training that does. The graduates of these programs are prepared to enter the world of work after graduation or continue their education in other ways. But choosing this path isn’t easy. Why?
Take a look at where a child in high school can find affirmation. There are formal and informal ways of recognizing those who are college-bound. College fairs, college information nights, etc. are part and parcel of most high school experiences. Assemblies to recognize membership in the National Honor Society. How often do you see congratulatory notes on school electronic bulletin boards about a student being accepted at a particular college? Are these wrong? Of course not. But …
How do we recognize those who are not college-bound, whose futures lie in the “blue collar” realm. If any recognition exists, it is a poor relative to the National Honor Society, the athletic banquets, etc. Students following these paths often find themselves relegated to the fringes. I’ve even heard parents apologize for their child not preparing to go to college. It takes guts to follow the not-college-bound route even when your skills and dreams would take you somewhere that is not college, would, if developed, define an honorable and participatory life of great value.
I have a friend who is an exceptionally skilled carpenter that found high school a painful experience, where his exemplary skills had no value among the classmates headed to college. He bemoans the fact that there is no one, to use his words, “coming up after him.” Have we elevated the white-collar job so much that our youth find the trades unappetizing? It can’t be because of earning ability. Have you hired a plumber lately? Paid to have your hair cut? Had your car repaired? We are not supporting young men and women who want to enter the trades in the same way that we support our college-bound kids.
If it is not earning power, it is something else … a longstanding devaluing of working with your hands, a lack of respect for skills that are essential to everyday life.
Looking back at one of my former columns that noted the poor quality of students entering colleges, we might find that, in addition to requiring less skills in the academics, we have pushed kids into college prep courses who really don’t want to be there; who would bloom if allowed to follow another course. The kinds of skills that are needed in an academic atmosphere are not particularly relevant in other areas of life. I have never used trigonometry in any environment except in a classroom. Knowledge about the life cycle of a slime mold is interesting, but rarely germane to making dinner. When I need a plumber, all my knowledge about the poetry of John Milton is useless.
Speaking of plumbers … I have this memory of a plumber that we hired some years ago. While he arrived in an ordinary, plumbing-type van, he did not fit the stereotypical plumber that we often see portrayed in the media. He was exceptionally good-looking and, being that I am college educated Phi Beta Kappa, I noted this right off the bat. While he was repairing the whatever-was-broken-at-the-time, he told us that he worked from late April through Halloween, then he headed south to spend his winters on his sailboat in the Caribbean. Not bad. Not bad, at all.
Our society is not just billable hours and corner offices, it is wood and steel and glass and broken things that need repair and things that need hands to build or to hold in bad times. It’s the phlebotomists’ and tailor’s needles. It’s the arc of the welding torch and the sound of the hammer, the mechanic’s lift and all of those who hold up this infrastructure of everyday living.
Wouldn’t we, and our children be better served if we encouraged them to follow their passions, to become someone for whom their work is a source of satisfaction and joy?
