An Idea for Parents, Students, Educators

One of the things that has most worried me about our society today is how as a nation, and even globally, people no longer know how to "do things." By this I mean they no longer have what used to be called a "trade." Corollary things that I worry about are the lack of physical activity for children (besides getting in trouble of course!) and how many, young and old, have depression and esteem issues that are related to valuing some of the most worthless things in society. I believe that we should have the coupling of our children's education in the school system with each child being encouraged to also learn a skill or a trade. I'm not talking about some bureaucracy here, but I'm encouraging individual students, parents, and academic institutions to think about this and make their own decisions.

How would this work? Most children when they are growing up can't wait to "help mommy" or "help daddy." So the desire to be involved is there at an early age. It is only later that children become trained to sit vacantly in front of TV, video games, or the computer, or "hang out" with the wrong crowds. The truly happy and well adjusted children I know are ones who learned how to do something "with their hands" in addition to traditional education. I'm saying to take this one step further and once a child shows a liking for something that could be a trade, to obtain for the child or student training or apprenticeship in that trade, in parallel with their school education.

In the "old days" children learned directly from their parents. I grew up in a generation whose parents knew things like how to build a house from the foundation up, how to do plumbing or electrical work, how to roof, how to plant a garden that one could actually live off of, how to repair a car, and how to keep livestock (my stepfather and his brothers plowed the family farm's fields with draft horses!) Children had parents who worked in factories and knew how things were made, were cooks in restaurants, poured concrete, knew how to blow glass, were carpenters and cabinet makers, and could make stained glass. These were hard jobs and hard times, but people were still more balanced, because they knew important parts of how to sustain one's self and one's community. In the town where I grew up, the fire department consisted of everyone's dads as volunteers. So they knew how to drive a fire truck, fight a fire, perform first aid. Kids picked these things up and often wanted to be like their dads (or moms.) Also, children had more exposure to both babies in the family, and the elderly, and they knew how to care for both the young and the old. All of this has changed. In one way it is good, because our parents worked hard so that their kids would not have to break their own back in factories or in the fields. And I'm not suggesting going back to that at all. But I am suggesting that a child be encouraged to learn a trade that they have a natural interest in, so that they can be proficient (to the point of being licensed) in a skill that is in parallel to their traditional education.

My grandfather was a carpenter, but he lived in Germany while I was in the US, so I didn't have more than a handful of visits with him during the time he was alive after I was born. I went to a university and got a bachelor's degree in a general field of science. If I could wave a magic wand and things would have been different, I would have loved to have learned carpentry from my grandfather at the same time as pursuing my science education. I say this for both aesthetic and practical reasons. I would have enjoyed the accomplishment of being a trained and licensed carpenter. And I would have had a trade to fall back to when things went all wrong in the dog eat dog corporate world, as inevitably they did. We are not doing our children a favor by letting them learn only "skills" such as web design, media arts, business, and other soft white collar skills. They are then chained to occupations and beholden to the mandarins who run corporations for their paychecks and their worldly goods. I've seen people obsoleted in their 50's, and then in their 40's, and then in their 30's because their high tech and fadish jobs have changed right out from under them. People start to do anything to keep their jobs and their high maintenance lifestyles, and I've seen terrible loss of moral judgment as people get caught up in corporate "success."

Then they drop out of the "rat race" and open a crafts store. How many crafts can people buy? I'm being only partly humorous here. When children grow up without a trade that they love to fall back on, they are beholden to whims of an artificial work world, and they are also part of the weakening of our country's capital structure. Capital is not just money in the bank. It's the ability to produce goods and services that have "add on," that is, long term value. I have Christian friends who are carpenters. The dad is the professional carpenter and the sons grew to love working with wood. The oldest son worked with his father to saw their own timber, cut it into beams, dry it and use it in building an addition to their home - all while the oldest son is in school! No matter what he majors in while in school, and while he may have a white collar job, he will always be able to add to the value of his family's assets by carpentry, and will always have that to fall back into if things do not work out otherwise. I almost had that happen. While in high school I learned mechanical drawing ("drafting") and that actually got me my first job while in university. But this was on the brink of computers, and so it was not a skill that lasted for me. I'd rather have learned the carpentry lol.

The best way to do this is to decide on a skill that you, or your child, would genuinely enjoy and apprentice one's self with a professional in that area. If you have access to money, by all means, take courses in a trade school or where training is offered, but I'm assuming that a lot of people who read this do not have the money. Also, if you have young children, that's not an option. I wish that there were guilds as there was during the medieval times, though without the exclusiveness and semi-slavery of course lol. For those of you who didn't learn about this in school, guilds were organizations of people who shared a similar trade (such as being a goldsmith) and membership in a guild was a requirement to make your living in that trade. It was like a combination of a license and an exclusive club. Guilds then took in young people as apprentices to learn their skills. There's a good entry on guilds in Wikipedia. I'm not interested in resurrecting all the problems and exclusivity of guilds; I'm just pointing out that there used to be an organized vested interest in a specialized field of knowledge that had a formal apprenticeship related to obtaining those skills.

So if there is a way that you can expose your child to skills and trade craft activities through a family member or trustworthy family friend, that is still the time honored and simplest way to discern an aptitude and interest for a child. Then make time for the child, appropriate to his or her age of course, to learn and participate, rather than hang out in front of the computer or in the mall. If you are a student already and are reading this, think about many choices you have and make some time, even when time is at a premium. It's summer break time now and this would be a great time to chat with people and find those who have knowledge that might be of interest to you. How about metallurgy? Skilled painting and wallpapering? Installing security systems? Operating heavy equipment? There are so many cool things that could be learned and practiced, and these are real - you never lose them according to the whims of popular culture. These are real "how to" things that help you and your family to have true self realization. If any educators are reading this, how great it would be if in your school systems you could offer some choices. The ship yards near where I live have great programs for students who plan a career in their area. I'm suggesting that there also be a program where students are learning this as a secondary skill. The web designer who is also a trained welder. The systems analyst who is also a carpenter. The actor who is also trained as a medical aide. The PR person who can also be a plumber. The mind boggles. And this goes both ways... if you are in a trade, why not also learn a language? The construction worker who is multi-lingual. There are so many things to be learned, and so many options, that it's sad to see so many of my generation who lost out on learning these skills from parents or grandparents, and who then were subject to the puppeteering of office politics and the fads of soft skills in a hard world.