On Nov 28, 2010, at 5:56 AM, richardsan wrote: > we're exploring options, post high school already.... > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1
I remember catching this article when it came out. But I'm a little conflicted by his writing... Shop class *should* be as important as math or reading, not just because it teaches you how to make a jewelry box, weld two bits of metal together or understand how a radio works, but as Crawford implies, it gives you a real connection to the physical world, and problem solving skills that aren't out of a multiple choice question. We SHOULD value manual labor as much as we do mental labor, and not see it merely as a 'last resort' for someone unable to 'cut it' in the modern world. Working with your hands DOES offer a soul-satsfying experience unmatched by writing a term paper or solving a quadratic equation, as useful as those may be (and honestly, writing a persuasive argument or solving a non-obvious equation can also offer a soul-satisfying experience that making a tin cup cannot). I've long held that the myriad shop classes I took helped prepare me for an academic career almost as much as math, reading and biology; I've used skills I learned in those classes many times in the lab and in the IT shop. I also use those skills all the time in the rest of my life, ironically obviating the need for me to hire one of the craftsmen that Crawford talks about. I didn't need to hire a mechanic to fix my car and bike, or a plumber to replace a toilet, which points out the OTHER great impact of shop classes: affording that degree of self-sufficiency on the person taking them.(1) On the other hand, he is speaking from a position of incredible privilege: he has multiple advanced academic degrees, can clearly earn his living, if needed, by writing or doing that office work he so clearly detests. For example, I expect he's getting a rather nice income from his book, as it's been on the Times best seller list, and gotten numerous good reviews. Jobs as program directors on K Street are not minimum wage positions. His is a philosophy not far removed from William Morris' (2) anti-industrial Craftsman movement of the 19th century (a movement that clearly still resonates today). A dedicated, passionate craftsman can earn a good, satisfying living doing something they love to do, but they have to be talented, lucky and truly love what they're doing. And one more thing... They also have to be rare. There are only so many boutique motorcycle shops or woodworking shops that can viably exist in an area...they're like apex predators in a way, they need a large territory with less competition, which translates into a large, affluent customer base. Just as Morris' Craftsman utopia wouldn't have been possible without the industrialization he abhorred, so too Crawford's utopian vision of the philosopher/mechanic/poet wouldn't be possible without the larger society of 'office drones'. After all, who owns the classic motorcycles he's repairing? What do THEY do for a living? Don't forget, Lake Woebegone aside, the vast bulk of people are perfectly average in skills and talent. In a way, Crawford's essay is a little like Thomas Friedman's best-selling blatherings of a flat world. Friedman is a man at the pinnacle of privilege (widely published author and pundit, married to a multimillionaire shopping mall heiress) recounting absurd conversations with strawman 'taxi drivers' about how Americans need to be the 'high-value topping, the cherries and jimmies on the top of the ice-cream sundae that is the world economy, since the ice cream is now cheaper to make in India'. (3) A) the jimmies are expendable luxuries on the top, and b) No reason those can't be made in India, too. You cannot outsource plumbers like you can accountants, but neither can you have an ecosystem of just plumbers. If all the deer move away, the wolves starve. So in order to preserve Crawford's ideal of valued labor and craftsmanship, we ALSO need to preserve the larger economic ecosystem in which it works...which means we need to be able to provide an economy that offers good jobs for all...average or not. The US' current economic strategy of racing to the bottom of a service economy and outsourcing the rest to make the upper 2% vastly richer does not accomplish that. On the Gripping hand, the purely economic value of higher education has long been clearly proven (by some of those office drones crunching factual numbers) <http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/a/edandearnings.htm> So yes, if there's something that an elfboy loves to do and is talented at, not college related, encourage, support and help with it, but don't discount the value of a plan B: a college degree, two or four year. Worst case he'll spend some years doing stuff he doesn't like to be able to afford the stuff he loves to do later. (The only PhD in philosophy I've ever personally known was also a mechanic, oddly enough. He specialized in English sports cars, so I expect dealing with the imponderable complexities of Kant and Heidegger helped him deal with the imponderable complexities of Lucas :-) (1) To be honest, I come by that self-sufficiency as much from my father as I did school. Dad was an accountant (and greatly enjoyed his work as such), but he also was an accomplished auto mechanic, a decent cabinetmaker (he rebuilt all the cabinets in the family home kitchen) and a happy tinkerer (after he retired on disability, he made jewelry and wood carvings). We made the desk for my room together, fixed the family cars together. What the school shops did was expose me to tools, materials and techniques he didn't have, a great complement. (2) Morris was also a privileged, respected academic, and multiply published author at the time he founded his design firm to service the rich scions of the industrialists... (3) When he's not endlessly pronouncing that we're only six months away (now widely known as a 'Friedman Unit') from victory in whatever neocolonial war we're tangled in now, thanks to the dishonest cheerleading by pundits such as himself. -- Bruce Johnson "Wherever you go, there you are" B. Banzai, PhD -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot?hl=en.
