What kind of intelligences do we have?
I listen to NPR’s “Speaking of Faith” program on Sunday mornings. Today moderator Krista Tippit interviewed Mike Rose, who has written widely on education. Discussion covered in interesting ways the American split between “academic” learning and “workplace” learning–in which those of us in one world tend to dismiss the other. The college prof tends to look down on the plumber who installs his hot tub. The plumber who tends to pity the prof who doesn’t know how to fix a leaky faucet. Rose comes from a working class background and has spent years studying the complex knowledge required in the trades and service jobs (his mother was a waitress for 35 years). Rose’s argument is that the distinction is a harmful and artificial one, which enforces an undemocratic class and educational system. I speak as a retired teacher who has (typically) divided his days between teaching book-content and cleaning clogged sewer lines, wiring a home-addition I built myself, etc–and now is designing and building a new home from the ground up (hiring only heavy lifting). I would like to say that I have learned as much from my days at Breaktime as from any college course. My respect for the trades, the intelligence needed to practice them well, increases with every new task I challenge myself with. The interview I mention can be heard at www.SpeakingofFaith.org.
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Interesting post... This should make for some thought provoking discussion.
I'm looking forward to reading what everyone else has to say here.
Random thoughts triggered by this post:
1) I heard two interviews last week from celebrities (Jay Leno and Woody Allen) where both ended up at one point commenting on how absurd it is that they get paid 7 figures for telling jokes while people who work hard get paid but a fraction of that. Both admitted that they haven't necessarily protested that issue much, as it has obviously benefited them. ;o)
2) I had a conversation with someone who felt that .gov workers are paid too much. My response was that they are paid fairly, and the issue is that so much of the rest of the population are NOT paid fairly. The difference is that in .gov land, the gap between the lowest paid and highest paid is incredibly small compared to the private sector. It does mean a lot of hard working people mopping floors are paid a living wage but those higher up the chain may not be driving their collection of 5 sports cars like their CEO brethren in the private sector.
3) As someone that ended up 'white collar' I have a fascination with watching shows like Dirty Jobs, tackling my own DIY projects and fantasies of eventually living in the country somewhere farming. We modern humans seem to have lost the drive and/or ability to pursue Renaissance ideals of worldly knowledge. Instead, we focus on a narrow career niche, get good at it, and then realize the rest of our skills as humans has atrophied.
4) I used to sell software to dairy farmers. More often then not, when talking to the male farmer, he'd quickly say "Oh, computers...that stuff is way too complicated to me. Here, talk to my wife". All I could think was that here was a man that can likely rebuilt the engine in his combined in a weekend and is afraid of a keyboard. I was jealous as all I could do was figure out the keyboard. Rebuilding a combine was conceptually beyond my capabilities.
Anyways, I agree. I think the classification of work overall is detrimental to society. White vs. blue collar. Knowledge worker vs. unskilled labor. Labour vs. Management.
It's all work, and the more diverse we can make it both as a society and individually as people, the more respect we have for each other and ourselves.
My dream job would 'worker'. Monday I might write software. Tuesday I might mow the lawn. Wednesday work in the cafeteria. Thursday I'd organize meetings, etc.
Impractical? Of course, but if we can move just a little bit in that direction, it'd be nice.
As for breaktime, the fine intelligent professionals in here has enabled me to tackle building all sorts of stuff in my house. That's brought a nice bit of sanity to me. Being able to build something well with both one's mind and one's hands is one of the greatest things one can do. The trades are this great mix of craftsmanship, engineering, technology, planning, design, and sweat.
I've often thought that
I've often thought that government workers get paid more than what they are worth and not enough for their responsibilities. Particularly in the teaching profession, I've thought this to be true. Some truly bad teachers who are relatively overpaid for their abilities. But there are some really good ones who aren't paid enough.
We pay many people minimum wage or close to it, yet they have huge responsibilities. Many police place themselves in dangerous situations, yet get paid a pitence. TSA get paid little, but have huge overall responsibilities. Do you really feel safe placing national security in the hands of these people who, I'm guessing really don't know much about the ins and outs of true security from skilled terrorists who likely know a lot about getting e.g. weapons through security?
I always tend to have high respect for the other people I meet ... at least for the position and responsibilities they are supposed to have. I often see the architect badmouth the contractor, the contractor badmouth the architect and the building official and the owner badmouth everyone in an effort to make his inability to make better decisions right.
If everyone simply took full responsibility and busted their butt to get their job done and do a good job, we wouldn't be having this conversation. People often tend to not want share information, experience, techniques because they fear others will 'get ahead' of them. We tend to be greedy, so we tend to dismantle the respect we should have for each others' abilities, knowledge, and skill.
You do realize that garbage collection is the most dangerous job,followed by fishing. Construction comes in around 6 and police generally rank 10th or eleventh.
Turns out the underpaid guys on the front lines protecting us from rats and disease are risking the most for us.
It's that strange set of
It's that strange set of values we have. We pay a teacher 40K and the president ... what is it ... $400K + other benefits while rock stars knowing only a few chords get paid millions and have zero liability or accountability. Relative to value or responsibility, we seem to be topsy turvy to say the least. Go figure, eh?
As for breaktime, the fine intelligent professionals in here has enabled me to tackle building all sorts of stuff in my house. That's brought a nice bit of sanity to me. Being able to build something well with both one's mind and one's hands is one of the greatest things one can do. The trades are this great mix of craftsmanship, engineering, technology, planning, design, and sweat.
Tell that to the designers and creators of this forum or the ones who created the software that made it awkward. It is clearly a lack of planning and craftsmanship.
Tim Russert, in a follow up to his book, Big Russ and Me, wrote about the responses he received from readers expressing respect for their fathers.
One of the responses was from a woman who told of having been ashamed during high school that her father was "just a plumber" while most of her friends' fathers were professional men.
On Christmas Eve, she got a panicked call from one of her friends, the daughter of a high-powered attorney, asking if her father could come over right away because their house was flooding.
When the plumber arrived there were a house full of guests and water was running down the stairs. He asked the lawyer why he hadn't shut off the water. "I don't know how", the lawyer said. The plumber shut off the water and quickly fixed the leak.
Later, he commented to his daughter, "your friend's father is one dumb *ss lawyer!"
She said from that moment on she realized that her dad's expertise was less adulated than that of those lawyers, but no less valuable.
You hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head!! right on
On Edit: Never mind.. I said it better before (in the next post....)
I've worked white collar and
I've worked white collar and blue collar.
There are dumbazzes on both sides of the fence, and truly intelligent practitioners on both sides as well.
In my experience, the intelligent ones recognize other's with an intelligent approach to their endeavors, regardless of trade/profession, and the dumb one's don't.
Common sense is one form of education that crosses those two boundaries of white and blue. To not use it might make a very smart person a real dumb mutha.
Learning from your mistakes (and those of others) is yet another education that too often goes unlearned.
I do know that the older you get the more you envy those that get paid to use their mind.
Some people believe everyone else's job is easier than whatever their job is.
I have been reading "Shop Craft as Soul Craft" by Matthew B. Crawford. Subtitled "An Inquiry Into Work." It's about this very subject. He has a PHD and a motorcycle repair shop. Worth a look.
Jared Diamond asked a similar question in his book about why the Europeans conquered the world, and not a much sharper group of hunter gatherers. He posited that the hunter gathers of New Guinne (I think) were very sharp mentally, knew all kinds of botanical information, were fierce warriors, etc. Theoreticly, people like this should be the ones conquering the world... but they didn't. His book takes on the question of why they didn't. Germs, Guns, and Steel I think is the title.
Great book.
Our culture puts WAY too much emphasis on "college prep" education for every student, ignoring the needs of numerous industries, and numerous students.
In many states, there is no provision for "vocational" education. As a result, no one graduates from high school qualified to be an electricians helper, no one qualified to lay brick.
Auto and deisel mechanics could be taught in high shcools, as could be auto body repair, culinary and hotel management, welding, carpentry, plumbing,....... the list can get quite long quite easily.
The powers that caused this educational lack, it seems to me, are the same powers that have a great propensity for saying that "these are jobs that Americans don't want". In fact, these are jobs that American educators do not prepare us for.
And that is a shame.
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We certainly need trades people who can do very practical things. But we also need brain surgeons and rocket scientists.
I don't see that one group is more important than the other. We could maybe stand to have a little more tolerance for each other though.
It takes all kinds to make everything work.
However, I've decided not to tolerate others as that implies that I put up with them even though I dislike them. I'd rather respect them and their trade/skill and for everything they contribute to the good.
Hey Clewless.....
You said... "It takes all kinds to make everything work."
My opinion is just a bit different.
IMO, we simply have all kinds, and are doing the best we can.
Warning, overly long post.
I am one of those people that straddle the fence in BOTH personal and professional life. I am a Project Controls Specialist (Cost/Schedule/Risk/Change Management) for everything from heavy industrial construction, to turnarounds, to services contracts and DoD Services or "Product" jobs. I am college educated (but learned little there) but I learned almost everything in "practical application"...or being thrown in the deep end and learning to swim.
In my profession I have had to learn how to do piping take-offs, read boiler spec's and spend a ton of time walking sites and marking up drawings manually for as-builts’. On the same job I might have to wade through thousands of the FAR's (anyone who has worked gubm't jobs learns to hate those), create custom databases and gently guide over-achieving Project Managers away from conflicts of interest that could land their butts in Leavenworth.
My only hobbies...remodeling old houses, brewing beer and working on old BMW Motorcycles. I always tell people, when they are amazed that I did this or that, "Everything is a just a glorified baking recipe". If you have the right ingredients, the right tools and the right instructions, all you have to do is work through the steps methodically and you will eventually get it right. When I drywall, it still takes me days to do what a pro could do in an hour and I have the ultimate respect for them. I have gotten to the point now that I can fish wire and replace/add plumbing as fast as some (slow, lazy or just bad) electricians or plumbers...but I still have to plan in advance what I am doing far more thoroughly than a pro would.
Having worked throughout the Middle East and twice in Europe, I too lament the loss of our tech schools and apprentice programs. But I can say that for the amount American’s turn their noses up at “tradesman”, it is nothing compared to many of those countries that do have strong apprentice programs (Germany, Switzerland, Austria for example).
Here is the rub for me. When I am away from home on a job, my wife has to depend on these trades-people to do repairs or minor projects she just can’t wait for me to do. 75% of the time, we end up getting ripped off by either shoddy workmanship or a contractor not adhering to a schedule (aka, start a job and no-show for weeks). We even tried incentivizing them with 25% bonuses if they show up on time, finish on time and clean up their own mess when leaving…only one contractor in 5 years has collected the bonus (although another got a smaller bonus for doing everything but actually cleaning up his own mess). For me, this makes it hard to respect a lot of contractors even when I respect their skill and value their work.