Blue Collar for Life: The College Crisis

Well it's been over a year since I've posted anything. I wish I could say it was because I was so busy that I didn't have time, but that isn't the truth. I have been busy, but just haven't had the motivation to write down much of anything.

A brief update on life before we I get started:
-I lost a man that was instrumental in making me the man I am today. I understand and fully believe that he is in a better place with the Big Man upstairs, but that doesn't change the fact that no matter how ready you say you are, you just aren't. I miss him terribly, but his flag is in a case overlooking my bed and that is a nice thing to have.

- I have changed classes and industries and finally don't hate going to work. After 8 years in retail Hell, I am finally doing something with my hands. Sometimes it takes awhile to get it right.

The second point is really what this post is about. There is a College Crisis in this country, but it isn't anything like you think it is. It has nothing to do with the quality of the schools, the ideologies of the professors, or the campus life. The Crisis is with enrollment: Too many kids are going to college. Too many. How many times as a kid did you hear "You need to keep those grades up so that you can go to college"? Parents, how many times did you say that? Shouldn't that statement have been "Don't ever stop learning"?

"Everyone should go to college" was the most repeated and the most damaging lie I heard from the time I was little until I graduated from college. That just simply isn't true. Some people aren't smart enough, some don't have the discipline, some don't have the drive, and others can be better served in technical schools or the military. Somewhere along the way, we as a society lost the devotion to helping people go in to the world with the skills and the education to succeed and stay on the cutting edge. Somewhere along the way, a piece of paper with some guy named Dean's signature on there became more important than being useful or proficient in a specific field.

I graduated from college, and I'm currently enrolled in technical school. I've seen both sides of the coin. My college years, by and large, we underutilized: I didn't want to be there, I didn't like the majority of my classes, and at the end of it all, I felt ill prepared despite that piece of paper. I will be the first to admit that I could have put forth more effort, but with that being said, I worked 30+ hours a week and graduated with a 3.4GPA. It isn't like I just barely got by. And God knows I had my share of fun, but I also had my share of all-nighters and I don't mean the fun kind. Tech school, however, is a different ball game. The reason for that is simple: Tech school goes back to basics. It is a skill that is learned by hands-on, learn-by-doing methods and, more often than not, results in a instant, tangible product or outcome. Couple this with the fact that most of the guys in my class already work in the industry, and the depth of learning increases still.

You could say that accounting, for example, is a skill learned by doing. And you would be correct but missing the point. It isn't tangible. The money is imaginary and is electronically transferred. It isn't "real". What I'm getting at is that it is two completely different experiences for two completely different types of people. And generally(from my experience), if a person likes and thrives in one, they don't like and/or thrive in the other.

Before I continue, let me make one thing clear: I'm not advocating tech school for all. That would be silly and exactly like the lie I'm condemning. I'm simply saying it is not only an alternative, it is a GOOD alternative. For some strange reason, it isn't good enough to be Blue Collar anymore in this country. And that's a damn shame. For every visionary, such as Henry Ford, that changed America, there were thousands of Blue Collar guys that possessed the skills and knowledge to make his vision a reality and a success.  Why isn't this celebrated? Why isn't this a dream?

The marketing department at Mopar (who I'm sure are college graduates) might have figured out what I'm saying. The slogan for Jeep is so spot-on for what I'm talking about that I wish I could claim it.

 Jeep: The things we make, make us. 

Simple, beautiful, true. The script of the commercial is phenomenal as well. It reads:

“The things that make us Americans are the things we make.  This has always been a nation of builders.  Of craftsman.  Men and women for whom straight stitches and clean welds were matters of personal pride.  They made the skyscrapers and the cotton gins.  The colt revolvers and the jeep 4X4′s.  These things make us who we are.
As a people we do well when we make good things and not so well when we don’t. The good news is this can be put right. We just have to do it.  And so we did.  This, our newest son, was imagined, drawn, carved,  stamped, hewn and forged here in America.  It is well made and it is designed to work.  This was once a country where people made things.    Beautiful things.  And so it is again.”

So what is the point of all this ranting and rambling? Encourage learning and seek knowledge, not pieces of paper and societal constructs. If you want to go college, that is awesome! But go because it betters your skill set for what you want to do. If you want to go to tech school, make it happen! But do it because you are a hands-on person who needs that satisfaction of making things. Let's push past this notion that college is mandatory and the only socially accepted route of higher learning.

Against my Moral Compass, I will end on a quote by that well-spoke Socialist Carl Sandberg:

"Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation."

Be proud of what you do. Be proud to be Blue Collar for life.