Reply #21: As an educator, I encourage people to get an education [View All]

[proud2BlibKansan]

I had many friends who chose to take those "blue collar" jobs instead of going to college. And they have gone through layoffs, company bankruptcies, work slowdowns and stoppages, weather that prevents them from working, etc. The difficulties of maintaining work in a "blue collar" job did not begin when undocumented workers entered the work force. It is a hard way to make a living and they knew that going into it.

This isn't about me pulling myself up by my bootstraps, it's about choices. Choices that were available to all of us when I was in college. And choices I fight to restore today. I am far more concerned about the lack of student loans and financial aid and vocational programs for students than I am about blue collar workers losing their jobs. The writing for them has been on the wall for as long as I have been in the work force. The smart blue collar workers are trained in other professions as well. I have taught school with more than a few carpenters and masons. They also made a choice to get an education. Now they are coming back to teaching. I also know a few nurses who went to nursing school while they worked as plumbers and carpenters. My cousin is a doctor who worked his way through school as a mechanic. And he made less money as a doctor when he first started. Now his job as a mechanic is in an assembly plant that went out of business a long time ago.

We have advised our kids to be trained in more than one occupation. And as an educator, I always promote education. That's pretty much a no-brainer.