Trade jobs pay good money. This is a known fact, yet the overwhelming importance American society places on four-year degrees continues to drive thousands of young people into fruitless university programs and mountains of debt.
Mike Rowe, the poster boy for hard work in America, shared an NPR article about the issue last week. However, not everyone was happy about it; in fact, one woman claimed that Rowe’s support for trade jobs and hard work was an attack on higher education.
According to Rowe, a woman named Dawn Baker had this to say about his pro-hard work mentality:
“Is it your intent to make those who choose college to feel ashamed, lazy and brainwashed? Our country’s education system is under attack, and you seem to be supplying more ammunition to those attacking it……There’s a reason many of these jobs pay well – they are truly HARD WORK – physically hard. Dangerous hard. Mentally hard. Feel free to send reps to the local unemployment office and brow beat them to send people to these jobs. Whether you mean to or not – your are sending a very bad message to those who want to destroy our higher education system.”
Baker’s comment is clearly nonsensical, both in theory and literally. But Rowe had the perfect response to Baker’s criticism. “You’re right — our countries [sic] educational system is indeed under attack,” he said. “But the attack is from within, and the wounds are self-inflicted.”
Rowe is, of course, correct. Colleges and universities are doing themselves no favor these days by creating literal safe spaces for students and employing people like Randa Jarrar – two examples that Rowe highlighted in his response to Baker.
He wrote:
“Point is, Dawn, the hypocrisy in our educational system is rank, the bias undeniable, the disrespect for our flag ubiquitous, and the entire ‘safe space’ mentality the exact opposite of what life is like in the real world. Higher education has created its own PR nightmare. Is it any wonder parents are trying to figure out if their kids should be sent into such a lopsided environment? Is it any wonder reasonable people are beginning to question the value of a four-year degree?”
No, to a reasonable person it’s no wonder at all that Americans are finally questioning the four-year degree. Especially not after seeing the data pointed out by Rowe:
“[…] universities have been able to raise their prices partly because too many parents believe that anything less than a four-year degree will doom their kid to a less productive existence, and partly because we’ve pressured millions of kids to borrow whatever it takes from a bottomless pool of unlimited money that doesn’t really exist. The result? One and a half trillion dollars of student debt, 6.3 million jobs that no one wants to do, and millions of college graduates who can’t find work in their chosen fields — but lack the skill to do the kind of jobs currently available. The kind of jobs you deem, ‘hard work.'”
In other words, it’s time Americans started teaching their kids to value hard work again.
Share this if you agree with Mike Rowe that Americans have it backward about hard work!
