WARNING: This blog contains copious amounts of adult GAY material. If that's offensive to you, please leave now. All pix have been gleaned from the internets so, if you see a picture of yourself that you don't wish to have posted here, please leave a comment on the post and I will remove it with my apologies.I REPEAT: If you see a picture of yourself that you don't wish to have posted here, please leave a comment on the post and I will remove it with my apologies.
This one hits close. Had neighbors that moved to Colorado with a 14 year-old son with ADHD who was introverted, asocial and as mixed-up as they come. When not in school, stayed in his room and played computer games. After the move, his parents found that high school was extremely difficult for their son and he struggled to keep up with the book learning designed entirely to promote a college education and continuing studies. With a great degree of concern for him, Mom and Dad found counseling for him until he was 18, at which time he found a job delivering food for a restaurant and things began to change. He is now 20, graduated from high school this year and is training to be a journeyman electrician. With his own money bought a car and the graduation pictures they shared with me showed him smiling like I never saw when they lived across the street. At 6ft 4in he is a striking young man will find success working with his hands in a trade that interests him.
ReplyDelete*When I graduated from high school with a 3.6GPA, I was expected to go the college route, ended up squandering 2 1/3 years aimlessly seeking something that interested me without success. A trade school would have benefited me and I would have been happier and more productive as a carpenter, painter, landscaper or any other job where I could work with my hands and create something of use to others...life turned out okay, except for this damn gay thing which had caused me considerable grief over the years, but I'm comfortable in my own skin now and doing okay*
Milleson - Thank you for sharing both stories.
ReplyDeleteIn shop classes, it seemed that they were "designed" for students who were possibly believed to be "slow learners" who were not worthy of college. When "college" was where the "upscale" kids went and some even worked their way through college. You were either going to be "blue collar" or "white collar", with the latter being preferred for a prosperous and wealthy life. Working with your brain rather than your hands.
ReplyDeleteI think that, secretly, many white collars wanted to have fulfilling blue collar lives. So those that wanted to "build things" tended more toward engineering courses in college. Learning how to build things better and stronger. Or architects and designers, too. For these people, they had to keep plenty of soap in the wash room to keep their dirtied hands cleaned! In MANY respects, college gave these people the knowledge they would need, more intensely, than if they had learned it OJT and experience. Which can accelerate their job progress and abilities.
YET, in "skilled trades" there is LEARNING and TRAINING that is necessary to get certifications and similar. A different kind and more focused version of "skills-related" college? THIS is not usually mentioned in the blue collar vs white collar career paths! NOR is the option of taking local college classes to assist them in their blue collar jobs!
ONE aspect of the human experience is that many schools cannot tolerate students who "learn differently" OR are bored. So the students turn inward (to video games and social media), because "what else can they do for enjoyment." With many parents choosing home schooling instead . . . which can be even worse as to the child's learning progress!
Point is that every parent, regardless of their generation and what is going on in their country at the time, wants their kids to have a better life than they did. If that meant "college" was in the mix, so be it. If they might need to support a skilled trades path, so be it. With the understanding that to do well, sustainably well, some "training and education" past high school will be needed for their best success.