The Trade Industry Is Key to a Prosperous
American Future

I was a school board member of a decade. In real life I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor. I suggested repeatedly another look at the future for our students other than "going to college." The administrators of the school district simply could not figure it out. They abandoned Home Economics, and classes that familiarized students with car repair.

There's a meme that tells of an electrical worker climbing a pole to shut off the power to a college grad without a job who can't pay the electric bill. I'm a great proponent of trade school.

Can’t outsource electrical or plumbing!

I agree wholeheartedly!! Mike Roe, who I adore (check out his podcast if you haven't, it is inspirational and very traditional American), has been preaching this for a decade +. Ds graduates from his HVAC trade school program with 4 certifications and top grades next week. We are so proud! He already has recruiters after him. We homeschooled our son and I told him to choose a skilled profession that will always be needed. I told him the best bet was a profession that "THEY" could not export overseas to India or China or wherever or even more so make extinct here in the US thanks to globalism. HVAC will evolve and he will have lots of further training and education to do over the years and new certifications to pursue but heating and refrigeration will always be required in our society. Plus, thanks to good grades and our smart government here in Tennessee, his entire schooling was paid for through scholarships via revenue from our state lottery. My first little chick is stretching his wings and this momma bird is very proud!

When I was in HS, (1960s) there were a number of job oriented courses. One that I took, and both enjoyed very much and benefited from, was "Drafting and Mechanical Drawing", taught by a nice man whose name I still remember well, Maurice Baxter. There were courses also in auto mechanics, auto body repair and a couple of other hands-on, job oriented courses that I didn't pay attention to as a HS kid, and don't remember. Also, there were courses in "Agriculture"....again, I wasn't going to be a farmer, so didn't pay much attention, but apparently teaching skills needed to be a better farmer. These were SMART things to be making available for young people to learn. I started my career in engineering in that drafting class. Mrs. DVC went to the same HS and took the same course (different class, we barely knew each other then) and became a designer in civil engineering for her career. I know some of the "ag boys" were definitely farmers, and i know of one other engineer who got his start very much in drafting class in HS, in the 90s. He worked as a draftsman for years, then decided to go to night school and learn engineering while supporting a wife, later wife and kids. It took him many years, but he is a good engineer now. A HS vocational class literally changed his life's direction, in a good way. We NEED these skilled trades. Most people don't have the tools or skills to do a lot of things that need to be done in their lives. People NEED skilled tradesmen - and women, as long as they can do the job. Mike Rowe has been putting out interesting TV shows about ordinary jobs and the good people who do them. The first was "Dirty Jobs", and currently we are watching "How America Works" which has some great shows, I recommend it if you can find it on cable/sat TV. I have to laugh at some of the skilled tradesmen shown on the show, because they TV show lists their education for each person....a number have HS diplomas and others have full college degrees in, say, journalism.....and both kinds work felling trees, or repairing pump machinery, or driving a skid loader or something USEFUL. A whole lot of college degrees are just wasted time and money, clearly.

Before World War II, wealth and social class largely determined college graduation in the U.S. (Also, to a lesser degree, high school graduation.) The GI Bill veterans’ experience changed perceptions of who could do college work and of a degree’s benefits. Early post-war studies showed a strong correlation between education and earnings. But education historically depended heavily on wealth and social class. Those, rather than education, may have been major determinants of earnings. Post-war graduates were more able and better trained; they naturally had greater earnings. Replication of earlier studies found the correlation between earnings and education increased. Formal education, as a key to prosperity, became a goal of national policy. Beginning around 1960, changes in the educational system aimed at equalizing and improving opportunity. High schools became dedicated to preparation for college admission, and, after 1968, admission became much less selective and more of the admitted students graduated. About half of the graduates now end up in jobs, such as retail sales, that shouldn’t require a degree.

Furnace fan motor went out few days ago and just this morning two repairmen from independent company did their magic and my home is warm again. Absolutely agree that folks who work in the Trades are most vital.

I say this with sadness, but without exaggeration: academia, K thru Phd, is THE source of that which is wrecking, gleefully wrecking, western civilization. This also includes most trade schools, especially community colleges. If we do not radically react against this scourge in the very near future, we will see a return of feudal society in the west, very quickly followed by a CCP invasion. At least we will get to see, before the lights go out forever, the globalists put up against a wall. I guess that's something...

I’m both. I went to a private HS, a top liberal arts college, a European university. I then spent thirty years behind a desk editing textbooks. After getting laid off twice, and getting really tired of trying to make math and science more socially conscious, I started a handyman business. I’m the most expensive handyman in the area, and I’m booked until April. Who knew that growing up a country boy (we didn’t have plumbers and electricians and so on in town) and taking shop in addition to academic classes would lead to a second career with fifteen less pounds, two inches less waist, and forty points off my blood pressure?

The basic problem is education. Working the trades (real trades, not simply manual labor) requires knowledge and skill. Ask a plumber how he uses math, figures out the effective pitch of the pipes that carry filth from your home to the sewer line. Try it yourself. Ask a machinist how he programs that CNC that "does all the work". Go down the line, and trades work requires smarts and ability...things that are no longer in vogue. It's not about going to college. It's about a whole lot of other things, too. Kids don't want that kind of work, and cannot be trained without a huge investment in remedial schooling.