I think this is a Rubio promo piece under the guise of a controversy, but it is one that no one knows about. Still Rubio get to be projected a blue collar job creator by means of a defense against against big bad evil "opponents".
Betcha lots of those prissy college boys would faint if they got grease under their fingernails. It took a half-hour of scrubbing to get clean after a day of wrenching on cars and trucks as a line mechanic. I sure don’t miss doing that for a living...
Rubio is right that we need more welders than philosophers, and right that devaluing vocational education is a problem for America. It is a pity that he tried to make his point by using a false claim. Those with undergrad degrees in philosophy doubtless on average make less money than welders. Actual philosophers — the folks who make it through a Ph.D. and continue to do philosophy as university professors or ethics advisors to corporations or professional societies — however, make more money than welders.
I have long advocated America having polytechnic institutes — sort of trade schools plus, where one would learn a trade, for instance, welding along with the science behind it something about businesses where the skill you learn is used and a thin overlay of other courses that would suit one better to be a citizen in a democratic republic, rather than someone who just knows things related to one’s trade. The great lot of students who come to university not to be educated, but to “get a job” at the other end would be better served by polytechnics.
When I was in Grade School, late Fifties, quite a few Senior and Junior boys went to a different school in the afternoon. They wanted to be tool and die makers, etc. As soon as they graduated, they went to work at good jobs.
its not even an issue of which makes more money (philosophy or welding)
its simply that a lot of people would like to be welders, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, roofers, airplane mechanics, computer technicians, and many more ‘trades’
(and our country needs nearly all of these trades, too)
AND YET.... many high schools have eliminated training or preparation for many or all of the trades!! its crazy!!!
bad for the children ... (ever wonder why there’s so much truancy and deliquency.. ? part of the reason is that there’s so little left in the schools that many kids want to learn ...or find interesting....so why attend?)
let’s get back to a more balanced educational system where we offer the kids a variety of subject matter
Next time someone at Slate needs a plumber, let him call a philosopher.
The last plumber that was in my house charged me $95 for walking through the door and $250 to clear out one pipe (he had to go on the roof to do it).
It’s true that Voc Ed has closed down in the schools - I have a metal stool in my classroom that once belonged to the wood shop - long closed since the 80s. (because kids couldn’t read)
Here we are almost 30 year later, Voc Ed gone, replaced by reading labs... and my 11th graders still come in reading between 3rd and 6th grade level.
Broken clocks, blind hogs and Cuban cabana boys.
About 75% of the general high school graduates (about 600 a year graduated) went on to college most of them a local two year community college.
Of those in community college, only about 20% got a two year degree, the rest dropped out.
Of the ones that went directy to a 4 year college you could count the graduates each year, on two hands with a finger or two left over.
Of the students from our vocational classes, over 70% either worked in the electronics (or their vocational) career field or went into the military and had vocational training related specialties there. (We had to measure that as one of the state standards for getting Perkins money).
The educational culture from the teaching level up through the district offices was to treat every student's training as college prep. This failed a huge number of each year's graduating class and condemned them to unskilled jobs for the rest of their lives, unless they finally bootstrapped themselves out of the cycle.
Rubio is right on this one...
We need philosophers as well as welders, actually we need philosopher welders, philosopher plumbers, and so on. We need people who can think and question as well as they can perform their skilled craft. I think it’s a shame we have separated the two.