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Mike Rowe is on to Something

10/24/2013

2 Comments

 
Mike Rowe is a name you might be familiar with, but can't quite place.  He is the guy who was the host of "Dirty Jobs", who crawled through piles of manure, cleaned out coal bins, inseminated animals, and tackled just about any "Dirty Job" you can think of during his tenure of this popular show.  He was also at one time a host on the shopping channel, QVC.

As he worked side by side with some of America's silent heroes, Mike gained insight and respect for the jobs others were eschewing...those "Dirty Jobs" that make a country run well.  He eventually put together a web site (Mike Rowe Works) to celebrate and encourage others to consider entering various trades.  He also has put together yet another web site and blog titled "Profoundly Disconnected", where he says "Profoundly Disconnected is the next phase of Mike’s effort to reinvigorate the skilled trades with the mission of challenging the absurd belief that an expensive four-year education is the best path for everyone."

I love reading what Mike has to say, and he is speaking to the majority of young people, did you realize that?  The majority of young people will not attend college, and because there is a lack of adequate preparation for them and this fixation on "college for everyone", they leave high school untrained, unskilled, and unready to face the world through no fault of their own. Their high school education was, in many ways, useless for them...and worse, they knew it all along but were powerless to do anything.  Even more profound, they leave high school feeling as if they are failures, because they are not headed off to college, and they have been made to feel as if they will never succeed in life because of it.

Stumbling upon a short interview with Mike, which you can read here, I found myself wanting to shout out, Amen, Brother!". Here are just a couple of comments that I nodded my head as I read, but I urge you to read the entire short interview.:  

“We’re lending money we don’t have, to kids who will never be able to pay it back, for jobs that no longer exist,”


and

“I’m not against a college education. I’m against debt,” he said. “That was the only four letter word in my family…”

What he’s against, Rowe added, is that we started promoting college “at the expense” of the vocational training that, in many cases, is what’s actually needed for the career.

“It’s not about, this is good or this is bad,” Rowe said. “It’s about, when did it make sense to say one size fits everybody? It never ever ever made sense to do that, and yet we’re still selling education the same way we sold it when you and I were in high school.”

I have found myself on the receiving end of rolled eyes and an arrogant comment or two about my own ignorance as I have tried to engage others in a conversation about the ridiculous high stakes focus  college for everyone.  Mike couldn't have put it better, we are promoting college at the expense of other very much needed coursework for kids.  In fact, one might say we are sacrificing over 59% of our students with our constant push for college at all costs. As of 2012, 41% of Americans had a degree of some sort, that leaves 59% who were never truly taught to, whose ultimate fate was ignored, whose needs were pushed aside because we want to pretend that every child can...and should...go to college.

That is a hell of a sacrifice, and it causes one to wonder if that might not the cause, in part, of our high school drop out rate, which is almost 25%.  By forcing every student to fit into a box that doesn't fit them, we are asking them to study information that they are well aware will have no bearing on their future.  How many kids will really need a full scale Biology course, which has really been designed to prepare students for college even when it is not an AP course?  Houston has figured out in a BIG way that teaching to the individual student and offering courses that apply to their lives produces a much lower drop out rate.  I'll share an article in the next few days which backs this up.

Mike Rowe is shining his spotlight on a very real, very harmful gap in our educational system, and our entire country is suffering for it in higher unemployment rates, higher dropout rates, and much more.  No one is saying to give up promoting college, as we will always have a need for doctors, lawyers (OK, we could probably use fewer of them!), psychologists, etc. But as Mike states, there are over three million jobs out there that companies are struggling to fill because of the dearth of trained trades people.  Why is unemployment so high?  Because we have failed to recognize that there is a need to promote vocational training right alongside college.

When we figure that out as a nation, we will all be better off for it.
2 Comments
Opsimath
10/25/2013 01:08:36 am

This is so refreshing and so wonderful to read. I agree whole-heartedly. I remember reading The Well-Trained Mind years ago and coming across a sentence which claimed that after reading Homer and following a classical education, a person would be a better car mechanic -- more logical, more capable of handling finances, and more able to interact with customers. That's one mighty big unsubstantiated claim! I remember thinking, I don't know, I'd think I'd rather trust my car to someone who had been taking apart engines on the front drive since early adolesence, reading car magazines, and shadowing a mechanic, someone who lived and breathed engines and who felt there was nothing he'd rather do than fix them for a living. In other words, I would look for someone who was passionate about what he or she did, and who had already put in a great part of that now-famous "ten thousand hours" of focused investigation, who had developed critical thinking skills in the context of what he or she loved most.

This is by no means to denigrate the classics or the worth of a good education! It's to say that skills like critical problem solving, logic, and communication can ALSO be acquired in other settings and in other ways, many of which can be more relevant and more rewarding to kids than "rigorous" academics.

And someone can be intellectually engaged without being conventionally academic.

For instance, when our dishwasher broke down, a repairman spent four hours struggling with it, trying to find out what the exact problem was. He was completely and utterly methodical and logical about going through the list of potential issues, but he could also think creatively when none of the things on his mental list of the usual problems panned out. He stayed at our house until nearly eight in the evening because he was determined to conquer, and in fact he even said, "The machine never wins!"

And there are other requirements for many jobs besides logic and critical thinking. My sister, who has never liked school, spent twenty years working with abandoned and discarded ex-racing greyhounds. She spent her time picking up poop, washing blankets, washing dogs, socializing them, arranging meetings with potential adopters, doing a bit of training. Over the years she adopted eight or nine dogs who were otherwise unadoptable for one reason or another (excessive barking, too high strung, etc.). The pay was awful; she did this from love and compassion. I'm sure I don't need to say how very, very much we need people like this in all walks of life. And I don't think that rigorous coursework would have made one iota of difference in how well she did her work, or how much time and effort she put into it. Again, this isn't meant to be dismissive of academic skills, but simply to put them into a larger context than that in which they are usually viewed.

There are so many "invisible" jobs in our society, so many people who do the work we take utterly for granted to keep things running or functioning or living. I love your emphasis on these jobs and on the worth and dignity of this work, whatever form it takes.

Have you read this book, by any chance? You might find another kindred soul in its author:

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

Reply
Opsimath
10/26/2013 09:13:14 am

It's me again! Here are two books, each of which takes a different approach to curriculum reform, and neither of which insists on a college prep/AP path:

http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Learn-Out---School-Engagement/dp/0325046042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382829050&sr=8-1&keywords=leaving+to+learn

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CQDRF84/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=32595127278&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=120520357855780810&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_h4pcto3ey_b

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    Cindy LaJoy

    Eclectic homeschooling mom of five, some of whom may go to college, some who might not.  Meeting her kids where they are at, and trying to move them forward is her life's work at the moment.  Cindy homeschools an incredibly diverse and wonderful bunch, and included in the mix is Dysgraphia, English as a Second Language, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Gifted and Talented, suspected Dyscalculia, Sensory Professing Disorder, Developmental Delay, Executive Function Disorders, Speech Impairments,  and...whew!  That's enough!

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