Stopped over at American Digest (which is a good thing to do each day) and watched this 20 minute video of Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) talking about how biting a lamb’s testicles off brought enlightenment. It’s well worth watching – jogs the brain out of the stuff we “know” so well, we no longer think about them. And really, it’s good to review and reconsider everything, from time to time, don’t you find?
Rowe is an educated man who has managed to not stop thinking.
UPDATE II: Reader Trudy sends along a link to “Mike Rowe Works”. Helps people get a line on jobs and training. I liked Rowe before. Like him even more, now.
UPDATE II: Rowe discusses the AIG Bonus Rage with a reader:
My Dad asked me this morning what I would do if I were an AIG banker who received a big bonus in this environment. Would I return it?
I opened my mouth to say “probably,” but what came out was “hmmm…”
To be honest, (perhaps too honest,) it got me thinking. Here’s where I am.If, as a contracted employee who signed on for the sole purpose of making money, I did everything I was supposed to do to earn a payout of $5 million dollars, I would expect to be paid. I assumed a level of risk, and preformed as asked. A deal is a deal. The only circumstance that could justify a non-payment, would be the bankruptcy of the firm. (That’s the biggest part of the risk I assumed, working in a volatile and competitive industry.) However, if the company stays in business, or is not allowed to fail, I’d absolutely expect my money. And if I got it, and was then suddenly asked to return it because the government realized it looked politically stupid and fiscally foolish for subsidizing my big fat bonus with taxpayer money, I might be inclined to say “I’m sorry, but I’m a tax-payer too. If you didn’t want to pay me what I was legally owed, you should have let the company fail. My deal was with AIG, not you.”
This “bonus rage” would not be happening in a world that respected consequences, because in that world, those companies who can not afford to pay their bills would simply fail, the way they’re supposed to. Likewise, all citizens would live the lifestyle they can afford, the way they’re supposed to. Of course, that is not the world we live in. In fact, companies like AIG have prospered exactly because so many people now live beyond their means. The hard truth is, those big bonuses were earned because AIG got rich saying “yes” to millions of people who should have been told “no.” And because we’re all connected, we all get hurt.
What a sensible man! A humble, thoughtful and adventurous one, too! (He once auditioned for the Baltimore Opera – and got in – with no musical training!) I almost wish he’d run for office. But then he would be ripped to shreds. He can probably do more for the nation as a private citizen. And what does that say about our body politic and our press?
Related: from a while back:
College is not for everyone, and you do not need a college education in order to earn a decent living and get your piece of the American Dream. To be trained in a trade is a perfectly honorable thing, and those Americans who work as electricians or plumbers or mechanics or carpenters all have the choice of becoming entrepreneurs or working for another. And none of them have to worry about their jobs being “outsourced.”
I think it’s a message that needs to be put out there and talked up, so that these same “at-risk” kids (and non-at-risk kids who don’t find 4 years of college to be an attractive idea) can look at trades and not think of them as something “lower,” or as less-desirable choices than being a lawyer (yeah, we need MORE of those), or an investment banker, or an MBA. All of those people NEED the tradesmen, and they are willing to pay top dollar for someone who knows their stuff and does a good job.
I’m not speaking from some ivory tower. I’m the daughter of a tradesman, my husband is the son of one. Three brothers eschewed college for trades and all are doing very well – one of them has become quite the real-estate investor. In our Scout troop, several leaders are tradesmen – plumbers and electricians who own their own businesses and complain that they cannot find young people to come in and apprentice and learn the work. Why? Because they look down upon the blue-collar professions, not understanding their value and worth. Why? Because for too long a “college degree” has been touted as being the be-all-and-end-all of American life, and the idea of having a craft or a trade has been pushed to the side. On television, especially in sitcoms, such professionals are invariably depicted as sloppy, loud-mouth and ignorant – they are not made to seem attractive to the young.
I heartily agree, A.
The push for more public college dollar$ is usually presented with the premise that everyone should attend higher education.
I also pose you get a much different worker/employee in a person who took the long way to a BA – community college, part-time and finishing 8 years after high school. Might not that person have been more successful earlier if they had been directed to a non-academic path?
My dad, a plumber, said that the ideal is to learn a trade and practice it, then go to school to become an engineer. You get practical and academic perspectives, and you’d be a good manager as well.
Or, the tradesman reads voraciously or who goes to school in the evenings for the pure love of learning. That’s a winning combination, and someone who’s probably a good citizen – involved with the culture.
My son and I adore Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs, and are avid watchers. Frankly, given what these college students have learned… I am thinking that my child would be better served by learning a trade INSTEAD of going an elitist indoctrination center.
College today is a total waste of time and money even for some of the so called “professions” like nursing — and I have both a BSN and a MSN in nursing myself. What they teach today is a bunch of nonsense. Many of the professors have no life experience outside of teaching.
And for the liberal arts — forget it! (I also have a BA in literature). You’d be better off getting a list of the great books of the canon, studying them, and enlisting the help of a tutor from time to time.
I wasted a lot of years in higher education, because I didn’t know any better.
The pervasive myth that everyone has to go to college is as much a scam as the myth that everyone needs to buy a house. It’s all smoke and mirrors and a ton of BS.
[both of my sons agree; unless you're in the hard sciences, College is a waste. Buster, who has a very nice scholarship to study music, is considering leaving school, working an a "nothing" job and simply advancing his musicianship. I'd like him to stay in "just in case" he eventually gets desperate and becomes a teacher. But you know...at this point, if he wants to quit, I'll support it. -admin]
I loved Mike Rowe for Dirty Jobs.
Now I love him even more. He makes so much sense.
I’m a college prof and I agree not everyone needs to go to college – there are an awful lot of good careers out there for which a degree is just not necessary. Now, I’d never prevent someone who had the motivation and the money to take classes in something because they wanted to – I think an educated population is important – but the implication that someone is somehow “unworthy” because they chose to go to trade school or do an apprenticeship is just wrong.
FWIW, I am in the “hard sciences” – life science. (And I have some issues with how teacher credentialing is done – you can have a degree in a field and not be “legal” to teach school, but you have have a mess of education credits and a few credits in an actual discipline and get a certificate, no problem. And a lot of education classes, from what I’ve seen, seem to be a lot of indoctrination and busywork and not a lot of useful instruction.)
[I have teacher friends who agree with you. One of my friends refers to her Masters as a "junk" masters, that required little effort. I think I may value her education more than she does. - admin]
He once auditioned for the Baltimore Opera – and got in – with no musical training!
Mike Rowe is a great guy. However . . .
La commedia è finita.
The Baltimore Opera is now no more, having announced its bankruptcy and liquidation a couple of weeks ago.
I’m a library assistant and an adjunct instructor in a teacher education program. I have had students in my class who can’t tell the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I have had excellent students too, but sadly it seems that they are the exception.
The classes in the teacher education program are filled with busy work and are mostly focused on diversity (all hail diversity)! Actual factual knowledge is downplayed and I fear many of the teachers out there would be lost without their teacher’s edition of the textbook. Meanwhile, people who know the subject (retirees for example) can’t teach because they aren’t qualified. We are living in insane times right now.
people who know the subject (retirees for example) can’t teach because they aren’t qualified
The rules for teacher certification are not in place for reasons of ensuring teacher quality (as one would hope), but are there in order to keep people out.
That is the reason that the teachers’ unions support pain-in-the-neck certification requirements: to discourage people – quality people – from seeking teaching jobs. If it were easy for someone who actually knows the subject matter, some expert in the field, to get a teaching job, then large numbers of current teachers would end up being out of a job.