Mike Rowe recently testified before Congress, part of the 5 page transcript is below. I've loved his show (it's one of my son's favorites!), and knew he did much more, but didn't realize how active he'd become in this issue. What he said to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has me applauding! I will be checking out, and very likely supporting, his Foundation.
I'm here today because of my grandfather. His name was Carl Knobel, and he made his living in Baltimore as a master electrician. He was also a plumber, a mechanic, a mason, and a carpenter. Everyone knew him as a jack-of-all-trades. I knew him as a magician.
I remember one Saturday morning when I was 12. I flushed the toilet in the same way I always had. The toilet however, responded in a way that was completely out of character. There was a rumbling sound, followed by a distant gurgle. Then, everything that had gone down reappeared in a rather violent and spectacular fashion. Naturally, my grandfather was called in to investigate, and within the hour I was invited to join he and my dad in the front yard with picks and shovels. By lunch, the lawn was littered with fragments of old pipe and mounds of dirt. There was welding and pipe-fitting, blisters and laughter, and maybe some questionable language. By sunset we were completely filthy. But a new pipe was installed, the dirt was back in the hole, and our toilet was back on its best behavior. It was one of my favorite days ever.
Thirty years later in San Francisco when my toilet blew up again. This time, I didn't participate in the repair process. I just called my landlord, left a check on the kitchen counter, and went to work. When I got home, the mess was cleaned up and the problem was solved. As for the actual plumber who did the work, I never even met him.
It occurred to me that I had become disconnected from a lot of things that used to fascinate me. I no longer thought about where my food came from, or how my electricity worked, or who fixed my pipes, or who made my clothes. There was no reason to. I had become less interested in how things got made, and more interested in how things got bought.
I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce. Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them.
In general, we're surprised that high unemployment can exist at the same time as a skilled labor shortage. We shouldn't be. We've pretty much guaranteed it.
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.
I came here today because guys like my grandfather are no less important to civilized life than they were 50 years ago. Maybe they're in short supply because we don't acknowledge them they way we used to. We leave our check on the kitchen counter, and hope the work gets done. That needs to change.
My written testimony includes the details of several initiatives designed to close the skills gap, all of which I've had the privilege to participate in. Go Build Alabama, I Make America, and my own modest efforts through Dirty Jobs and mikeroweWORKS. I'm especially proud to announce "Discover Your Skills," a broad-based initiative from Discovery Communications that I believe can change perceptions in a meaningful way.
The skills gap is a reflection of what we value. To close the gap, we need to change the way the country feels about work.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
What an eloquent way of putting the whole education and worker bee into perspective. The funny thing is that the older generation continues to value trade skills even if they have advanced degrees. I sure can identify with what he said. There was a time I used to fix my car, change the oil, etc. etc. As he said, I've now become removed from it all because it is easier and faster to pay someone else to do it, not to mention the hassles of meeting government mandates for proper disposal of the oil. Perhaps it is time for me to get back to my own roots, reconnect with the basics and thereby pass on the value and skills to those around me?
Aside from becoming removed, changing times have also removed us from the small farms where manual labor and trade skills were a daily requirement. Few have the appropriate setting to provide meaningful opportunities. So I'm reminded, that it is time for me to do my small part, lay out and put in a flagstone patio, appropriate drainage system, form up and pore an enclosing cement wall and then face it with stone, form up and pore an arched cement stairway, run the electric for lights, build some furniture, etc. The problem will be I've no one to teach ((
Rockdoc Franz wrote: The problem will be I've no one to teach ((
I can always send my kids up - they'd love to learn and help! Actually, I'd really appreciate the opportunity for them. Growing up as a child, I spent countless hours each year, with my brother, working in our family gardens (planting, hoeing, weeding, watering, picking off bugs - we were the pesticide!, harvesting), helping Dad chop down trees and split logs so we could heat the house for the winter (we had no furnace, it was the wood burning stove or freeze), build rock walls, canning all of our produce, etc and I can't express how grateful I am that I had that opportunity to learn first-hand that I was capable of doing that hard manual labor. Even though my days today consist very little of that type of work, it has instilled within a feeling of competence, lack of fear at difficult tasks, and a willingness to take on something I've never tried before because I know I can do it. As I lack access to 18 acres, a real farm, or an environment where I can introduce my kids to what I had, I'd appreciate tossing 'em your way! They won't like me now, but they'll thank me later!
Mom and Dad aren't slouches either - we put in flagstone pathways, and built retaining walls ourselves, and more as well! Just let us know when and we'll be up to assist! We'll make a party of it!
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
chickaree wrote: There are lots of mentoring programs out there Rockdoc. Just think of all the fatherless young men that can benefit from all you have to offer.
I've not thought about all that. Since I know nothing about them, I'm unsure if I would be of any benefit given a very unpredictable home schedule.
Last week a friend and I worked on opening a logging road as a means of an alternative exit in case of fire. One of the things we talked about was all the downed trees that I saw as firewood for needy people. Perhaps there is something that can be done that would be a win win situation on several fronts. 1) provide free firewood for needy families 2) clear out ladder fuel and thereby provide fire mitigation 3) clean up public lands and make them ore accessible for use and not to be forgotten 4) logging skills for participants.
Rockdoc Franz wrote: The problem will be I've no one to teach ((
I can always send my kids up - they'd love to learn and help! Actually, I'd really appreciate the opportunity for them. Growing up as a child, I spent countless hours each year, with my brother, working in our family gardens (planting, hoeing, weeding, watering, picking off bugs - we were the pesticide!, harvesting), helping Dad chop down trees and split logs so we could heat the house for the winter (we had no furnace, it was the wood burning stove or freeze), build rock walls, canning all of our produce, etc and I can't express how grateful I am that I had that opportunity to learn first-hand that I was capable of doing that hard manual labor. Even though my days today consist very little of that type of work, it has instilled within a feeling of competence, lack of fear at difficult tasks, and a willingness to take on something I've never tried before because I know I can do it. As I lack access to 18 acres, a real farm, or an environment where I can introduce my kids to what I had, I'd appreciate tossing 'em your way! They won't like me now, but they'll thank me later!
Mom and Dad aren't slouches either - we put in flagstone pathways, and built retaining walls ourselves, and more as well! Just let us know when and we'll be up to assist! We'll make a party of it!
If things work out, I'll be able to do some significant work after August 5th. I think the kids will be in school again by then. My hands are tied before that time.
Rockdoc Franz wrote: If things work out, I'll be able to do some significant work after August 5th. I think the kids will be in school again by then. My hands are tied before that time.
School doesn't start until August 23rd so we'd be good for a couple of weeks! The offer stands! :thumbsup:
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
When I was a student at Evergreen High School it had trade education on site as well as classes for college prep. The building trades class would build a house from the ground up each year, sell it and use the proceeds for the lot and materials for the next year's house. Of course, it, along with the other trade education classes at EHS, were canceled when the district had to choose between funding the defined benefit pension programs and other benefit packages negotiated with the public sector unions and continuing to fund these trade programs. OK, top heavy administration positions and Taj Mahal like new schools figured into it as well, but the end result was still the same. Every kid was supposed to go to college and the trade classes were a waste of resources that could be used towards achieving that end, so out they went.
My pa had a 4 year degree in mechanical engineering from DU. He fixed the family cars, finished the basement in the home he and my mother raised the 5 of us in - both of them actually, the one in Denver and the one in Evergreen. He fixed the plumbing in the house when necessary, mowed the lawn himself (until he managed to interest/force me into doing that chore) as well as tended to the maintenance of his mother's and his mother-in-law's houses. I wouldn't say he enjoyed it a lot, but he had a wife and 5 kids to support working for Public Service laying out the expansion of the electrical and gas lines to serve an ever growing city and the money he saved doing it himself was needed to provide for his family. I can't recall a time growing up where at least one weekend of each month during the spring, summer and fall wasn't spent at one of my grandmothers' houses tending to the maintenance of the house alongside my uncles and at least one more spent on the care of his own house, or the house of one of my uncles. Seems one or more of them were always finishing a basement, or needed a new roof, or the heads on a car had to be pulled so that the valves could be reground and the car reassembled the next weekend. We saw an awful lot of my cousins, aunts and uncles growing up. I'm hard pressed to think of a weekend we didn't see some, if not all, of them when we were young.
When I turned 16, the car my father obtained for me was found abandoned at an apartment complex when a tenant moved out. It needed a new clutch and the carburetor (single barrel) rebuilt before it would even run, and guess who got his introduction into auto mechanics as a result. New brakes (all 4 wheels had drum brakes) followed shortly thereafter, along with a new axle a short time later. When I got frustrated one day and opined that we should have a professional do it, my dad told me if I had the money to pay someone to do it I should have said so earlier so he wouldn't have wasted half his day teaching me how to do it myself. I guess he was a little frustrated as well, at me and the car, on that particular day.
Now that he's gone, I still do the basic work myself on the cars that I own, and I always think of him every time the wrench slips and I split the skin on my knuckles open. I still, in fact, use the same colorful verbs and nouns I learned from him when he did the same thing whenever it happens to me. I've also taken to keeping a couple of old Scouts in various stages of disassembly so that I have a couple of projects I can relax and enjoy doing when the mood strikes me. It drives poor CS nuts, and I'm certain she doesn't understand the nostalgia, but thankfully for me she puts up with it; though she does threaten from time to time that I'm going to come home one night and find one or both gone if I don't get either of them running soon. One of them had to be towed here when we bought the house in 2004 - I guess I should get that one running first. It's been around the longest and it would make a pretty good plow vehicle for the winter, which I'll need since I've got the snowblower in pieces now as well. 'Course I'd have to get a plow for it and rig that up too.
I'm sorry SC, I started out thinking I'd post a quick reply to something, but I seem to have become lost as to what it was that initially garnered my attention.............oh, that's right. I agree with you that we've lost our attachment and affection for manual labor in this nation and that the surest and quickest way to reestablish our middle class is to embrace them with the respect that they used to enjoy when the middle class was mostly comprised of people who came home from work with dirt under their nails and always seemed to have a cut or two in various stages of healing somewhere on their calloused hands.
((
They won't like me now, but they'll thank me later!
