A question for the HRC group

[LisaM]

89. I know. I don't get it either.

Part of the problem may be that these jobs don't appeal to younger people. I've read some of the stats and back when college was much more affordable, only 37% of people went to four-year schools. The rest went into jobs that didn't require degrees. Now, people are convinced that they all need four-year degrees and sure you do for certain types of jobs, but skilled training should really be considered on a par with a college degree. The 'free college" meme seems to me to be a mantra for (mostly white) people who want free tuition at prestigious four-year schools (forget about decent middle-level schools like Central Michigan, for example) and then want six-figure jobs afterwards. I went to a good school and I liked college a lot. I don't want to deny anyone else that experience. But I also attended on a mixture of scholarship money, help from my family, and yes, two loans that I had to pay back. And I never once expected that the world was going to hand me a job because of my English degree. I thought, instead, that the English degree would help me in whatever job I ended up getting. Which, by the way, it has.

But if the person who grew up next to me in my home town decided to be a plumber instead of going to college, I would hold that in high esteem because we can't really do without plumbers in this world, and yet I'm convinced that people increasingly disdain these careers. We spend time in the San Juan Islands and every year in May or June the small local paper does an issue devoted to the current graduating classes of the local high schools. They always ask what careers the graduates would like. It's a fascinating window into the minds of eighteen year olds. A huge number think they are going to change the world (they actually say this). They generally want to start their own companies, and they all are sure that life will hand them jobs that they love to do. Last year one of them had a stated goal of getting a degree in sports training and then becoming a personal trainer to Steph Curry (I laughed out loud at that one). And there is a small group every year on San Juan Island who state that they are going to do a two-year training as an apprentice in an electrician's program and my hunch is that these are the ones who are actually going to succeed in their chosen path.

I'm not trying to knock idealism and dreaming in the least. I love idealism, but I like it with a dose of practicality.