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Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter
Found this insightful, if not entertaining. Gail and Brett…and others have been espousing the value of the 3 year college degree—fits like a glove with this Economist value centric take on future careers…good ‘ol “manual workers”:
Opinion: The New York Times 4/26/21
Just to spell it out, the logic goes like this:
- So much of higher ed is crap.
- Well, ok, not crap but crap in that the market doesn’t have time for Charlemagne (nor Voltaire) and most families can’t afford it.
- And now, even the good college degrees are threatened by automation. Keep in mind the automation in chief czar is AI.
- But the one constant, that will not go away are the service jobs—waiters, bartenders, (hostesses with the mostesses), flight attendants—all tier 2, but then the big wage hike to tier 1: Plumbers, Electricians, Millwrights, Welders, Carpenters…(and of course the landscape/gardener guy/gal, the bug guy/gal, the pool guy/gal…these are, say, tier 1.5—but lucrative careers nonetheless. )
-D
I have a question. The claim is often made that an emphasis in the US on “ college for all” and the 4-year degree has led to fewer high school grads taking the Trades route.
Is this really true?
The accusation plays nicely into the anti-elitist argument. It’s the elites who are at fault. Forcing our poor kids into unsuitable college majors, while they could have been fulfilled and productive doing “real” work.
It also allows us to take a swipe at everybody’s favorite whipping boy, the high school guidance counselor. Those yahoos haven’t been right on anything since the Eisenhower administration. Think back to your own high school years, and the sage advice your guidance counselor provided. Of course you don’t remember! It’s not memory loss from all the intervening bong hits — it just never happened!
But how does the claim of “forced college” stand up against actual evidence? I don’t know.
I mean, if we were really pushing the high school grads into college, wouldn’t we have provided financial aid? That has pretty much dried up. And tuition and books and fees are now out of this world cost wise. Were guns being held to students’ heads when they took out all those loans?
Wisconsin has offered vocational ed, across the state, since at least the ‘60s. So that colors my view. But I can’t speak for other states.
In closing (yay!), am I correct in asserting that there are shortages of qualified workers in the professional ranks as well? You can’t blame that on “college for all”.
I may be totally wrong on this. What is the view from the throbbing bot brain?
Mark M.
OMG!…that really strikes, not a chord, but a slot in a someday FB post of mine re “Signs”. Thank you so much Mark, I am eternally grateful. Well not eternally, consider the below payback.
Now we’re even,
-D.
Ps: Is it just me or are there an inordinate number of musicians out of Canada? Off the top of my head, I can now add the above (Five Man Electrical Band–formerly The Staccatos—but you knew that) to Bachman Turner Overdrive …(BTO) and Robbbie Robertson, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, plus Dylan—northern MN…close enough.
Yeesh, I could spend all day bouncing around on Wikipedia—just learned that Randy Bachman was originally with the Guess Who and played a song written by Neil Young—Neil’s first big hit.It also told of a chance encounter on Sunset Blvd that was the genesis of Buffalo Springfield..but wait there’s more…did not know Young rode a motorcycle down a school hall when he was 12—expelled, (no metal detectors in those days) 😏…he had polio…partially paralyzed…(I remember him being prone to seizures but did not know that)…. RR: worked in carnies….thus Life is a Carnival. Ay.
-Dave.
Don’t forget Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, and the Barenaked Ladies.
Mark M.
Yikes, last time I heard “Signs” was on “K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the Seventies” (Reservoir Dogs). I do have a seventies station on my Sirius X in my car. I’ve been treated to “Brandy”, “Wildfire”, “Sunshine on my Shoulder” as well as “Spirit in the Sky”, “Old Man”, “Cut the Cake”, and more—everything between kitsch and cool. It’s given new meaning to my life.
Anyway, from my experience in MPS, which has mandated every child should go to college, all students are required to take Algebra their freshman year to get started on their college paths, even those who are woefully behind in math—and those who don’t give a shit. Bradley Tech does offer fine vocational programs which some students take advantage of, but—as is its tradition—MPS barely takes advantage of it. Of course, being as many Milwaukee students are under the poverty line and do not necessarily prioritize school as their number one concern, this might not be the best example.
There’s an article in today’s Journal Sentinel concerning a Daily Cardinal article about UW Chancellor Rothman floating the idea of curtailing liberal arts programs. He backtracked almost immediately, but financial concerns have been pushing a lot of colleges in that direction. I personally think liberal arts make good thinkers, good citizens, and good voters, especially today, when a good part of the electorate seems to have been hoodwinked by an orange demagogue—the man who would be king.
If college was affordable (again), we could afford to teach the next generation to think as well as to perform tasks, but as all of us with kids know, university is way too expensive now. If we want a next generation of “sheeple”, just get rid of our four-year universities.
G
The seventies were a strange time. I think we can all claim some justification for our eccentricities for having come of age in that period. It was such a transitional or liminal period in music, film, TV, politics, industry, you name it. I think of the 60’s and the 80’s and they seem like completely different epochs, different countries almost. And all that shit went down in the 70’s.
On education, our Demo representatives in MN recently passed a North Star Promise program that begins next year and pays all tuition and fees at any state college or university for kids from families making $80,000 or less. Not a competitive program and the academic requirements are minimal. I think that’s great, regardless of the vocational aspirations of the kids. Oddly, “red” states like Florida and Georgia already have similar programs. When is Wisconsin jumping on the bandwagon? UW System administrators are already wringing their hands over the prospect of losing a substantial number of MN kids who typically enroll in WI schools. Step up your game then Wisconsin!
MarkO
Concerning musicians north of the border: Don’t forget Diana Krall, Alanis Morissette, Leonard Cohen, k.d. Lang, or Loverboy. All good musicians, eh? And actors Michael J. Fox, Mike Meyers, Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera, and (meow) Rachel McAdams. The per capita star power seems a lot higher north of the St. Lawrence, eh?
G
Oh man. “Can’t you read the signs….”
Haha– Brilliant pic, Mark. I actually did LOL. Kinda scary all the significant things I’ve forgotten over the years while the cheesy lyrics of “Signs” are burned so deeply into my brain, leaving permanent scars on my frontal lobes and a persistent facial tic:
And the sign said long-haired freaky people need not apply
So I tucked up my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said, ‘Son, you look like a fine, upstanding young man; I think you’ll do.”
So I took off my hat, said, ‘Imagine that. Ha! Me working for you?”
Whoa, whoa….
Sigh. Why do I remember that? As the 70’s PSA commercial said, “The mind is a terrible thing to waste,” or, per that Eddie Murphy SNL skit, “The mind is a terrible thing.”
Yes, the seventies were a unique and wondrous time to come of age; a bygone era. The tuition was low, the rent was cheap, as were the weed and the beer, and the revolutions du jour were sexual and musical.
Ah, misspent youth. To be honest, the reason I wanted to go to UW-Madison was because it was rated by Playboy magazine as “The best party school in the nation“. Almost by accident, I managed to get a pretty good “Liberal Arts” education at UW– which I truly am grateful for.
Despite having “Signs” etched into our brains, I would venture to guess that all of us bots here are more broad-minded, discerning, and articulate than we would have been without some sort of liberal arts education. I wish kids from working class families today could have that same sort of freedom and opportunity. Society would be the better for it.
So I think it’s awesome what Minnesota is doing with “The Northstar Promise”. Canada has similar programs — which may be why so many great artists happen to be Canucks.
DC