According to the article, Mr. Gasper, who is 21, "... has no college degree [and] his annual pay tops $55,000. Unlike many young adults, he has no college debt."
You might wonder what a young man that age does to make such good money.
He works in manufacturing - more specifically in a machine shop.
The reason I am writing about Mr. Gasper today is that he represents what's wrong with today's educational system. Mr. Gasper started out under the wing of Jeff Kelly, owner of the Hamill Manufacturing Company, when he was just 17 years old as an apprentice.
I met Jeff maybe 15 years ago as part of some CEO network I belong to at the time. Hamill manufactures huge items made of metal - pipes and valve for nuclear things and big power plants and such. They have lathes large enough to hold an up-ended semi cab. Things like that.
Jeff was always interested in helping kids have careers in manufacturing. I remember touring his plant and seeing a bunch of young people working on molds for Sony. Sony at that time had a large manufacturing plant nearby that made the big, heavy 31-inch glass TV tubes and televisions. The molds were used to press the glass into the TV tube. Like the "wax on/wax off" stuff from the Karate Kid this kids where hand-polishing these molds. Lots of hours were spent at this and I guess it was kind of a test in some ways...
One of the thing I liked about Jeff was that he was committed to helping young people enter his line of work - it was something we both agreed upon. Like Jeff I have hired and trained young people in software and aspects of printing and publishing - albeit on a much smaller scale.
One of the most satisfying things you can do in your life is overseeing a young person progress from a blob of foolish, impetuous raw talent into a professional.
And this is where what is called "education" today is a complete and utter failure.
In the real world "education" is much different than what is sold to parents by colleges and universities.
At least from my perspective as a business owner the idea of "education" is teaching someone enough about a trade or skill so that they can make a living at it. (BTW, "make a living" means living in on your own - often with a spouse or significant other - not living in mom's basement.) That way the trade or line of business will have a steady supply of young talent coming on board. I guess you sort of like to leave a trail of educated youth behind you as a way to "give back" to society.
As a youth my elders in manufacturing, electronics and software gave me chances for education, training and advancement in the same way - just as I imagine its been done for tens or hundreds of thousands of years.
To me this is a much more satisfying means to "give back" to society because people will always squander monetary aid.
Part of this process, however, involves things that today are considered evil and unfair by "Big Education."
For one, you must engage a young person, as the WSJ points out, with an aptitude or talent for the particular career. Over the years of doing this myself I have run across a lot of young people who wanted into the IT world for money - and I have always declined helping them because without the inborn desire to be engaged in geeky, techie parts of IT they will soon lose interest.
Not everyone has talent but almost everyone covets money.
If someone that comes to me for training is only interested in money I always politely suggest they become professional gambler, lawyer or thief instead.
Educational institutions today, however, have come to believe that everyone has the exact same levels of interests and aptitudes (whether they do or not) and has no problem taking their money in order to attempt (or pretend) to teach them a trade or skill.
And therein lies the problem - its a waste of time to teach someone without aptitude - you as a teach won't be happy nor will the pupil be happy learning something they have no passion for.
In the old ways the "teacher" never takes on an apprentice that doesn't have the potential. No potential equals no opportunity.
But today's educational system thinks this is unfair. That we must all be created equal and there must all have the same abilities. (Of course the truth is that the educational system only thinks this to fleece the parents out of money - in truth what you do with your education once you get to the university doesn't matter as long as mommy and daddy's checks clear.)
Now I have heard for decades the whining of educational "elites" who say that little Jr. cannot succeed in life without a balanced, well rounded college education. This is, of course, complete nonsense. If "education" were actually required to do things how would human society have progressed to the point of creating educational systems in the first place?
You see, Mr. Gasper is probably quite able to learn on his own - as he has demonstrated from his ability to make a decent living at age 21. If he can learn about machine shop skills (which require math and some degree of science) then I am sure he can read a book, Google topics on the internet, and so forth to advance his own education right from the comfort of his own living room - all without the need to go tens or hundreds of dollars of debt.
(I image that Mr. Gasper has probably even mastered simple fractions! Not the sort of thing you find in a college graduate these days.)
And this freedom is an affront to "Big Education".
My God! Mr. Gasper is out there on his own learning, reading and thinking about global warming, politics, and so on all by himself. Without the support and skill of learned elite intellectuals to tell him what and how to think!
Yet my guess is is that Mr. Gasper will do quite well on his own because now he can now fund his own education.
At his $55K USD salary I am sure he can afford an internet connection and a laptop (total cost about $1K a year for a cable internet and another $500 for a laptop - more than the library card I used to get my education but still quite affordable at that level of salary). And I hope that's what he does.
Of course, his poor, debt-ridden peers from high school, steered away from manufacturing by stupid but well meaning guidance counselors, will pop out of college owing as much as a new house costs or more into a dead end job market were scoring a job at Wendy's will be considered a big win.
Will these graduates be smarter, better off, will they know more?
I very much doubt it because someone like Mr. Gasper will have spent the same amount of time learning to get by on his own - paying his own bills and paying for his own education - while little Johnny at the local college or big university will spend his days smoking pot, bartering passing grades from professors for who knows what, and borrowing money like the US government.
(Do I think "big education" is all bad - yes, for the most part. Some skills, like being a doctor, are perhaps better learned in an academic setting - but certainly "big education" is not required.)
Sadly people have come to believe that the only way to "get an education" is school.
Not surprisingly most things in life happen quite well without school (and happened before there even was a school).
Of course the educational elite finds this all nonsense. Yet Mr. Kelly cannot find skilled employees... I wonder why?
Certainly Mr. Gasper will learn the lessons of like if get gets laid off, takes drugs, or if his employer is bought out, and so on. But no more so than the lessons being learned in big state Universities where the gravy train of public funding is running out.
Only time will telll...
No comments:
Post a Comment