An apprenticeship program will pay you that much to learn a trade. Free skills training and guaranteed job placement.
Who is the smart one?
They do teach other things as well. At least the rock climbing isn’t required, and what I learned about colored peoples I learned by getting to know a few from Cleveland, Louisiana, and some other places.
It was a little enlightening for someone from the back woods of Oregon.
But the ones who were really weird to get to know were from Boston and NYC. Many of them were much weirder than folks from Eugene. Of course, I think the sentiment was probably mutual.