The above link is to Mike Rowe (or Dirty Jobs fame) testifying to the US Congress on jobs and more specifically skilled labor. He speaks of his grandfather and father, of the people he has met during his time as the “guest” of Dirty Jobs and of the greater picture of skilled labor.
I agree with most everything he says, and I would toss farmers in there as well. I’m not speaking of the huge industrial farms you can find all around the country, but of the smaller, local establishments that are still run by a few people working hard day-in-and-day-out to put food on your table.
One thing that stood out to me was the little he spoke of higher education and the stigma of “alternative” education. I think there is the start of a complete re-imagining of how view school in there if we choose to grab a hold of it and remodel out education system so that it will put out people who are better educated than we have now.
If we continue to look at “fixing” the current education system as it stands right now we are not going to get too far. If we instead tear things down and ask “what do we do now?” Maybe, just maybe, we can find our way again.
I know I don’t have the answers, but maybe we need to start by asking the right question.