Just watched a short vid saying there are tons of trade jobs available and tons of able bodies who are unwilling to work
um..... what????
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Yeah, everyone with a mobile phone now is also a potential entrepreneur with the monitization of content. For pretty girls, you know where this goes. For men, well, it's a bit tougher. That gets you guys standing around public places filming people for reactions (and they get them) or filming themselves 'raw dogging' 10 hour flights or doing some bizarre 'contest'. And when you see people like Mr. Beast and Sophie Raiin flaunting their millions and millions of dollars, you now have kids aspiring to something different than a degree and a career. Mr. Beast's first video was him counting to a million. And people watched it. I repeat - we are living in the dumbest timeline. Meanwhile, every kid at our private school is killing themselves with extracurriculars, academic camps, tutors, podcasts, volunteering, networking, etc. so their parents will be happy with where they end up for college. Friend of mine's oldest son went to Harvard a couple years ago; his brother was applying to schools this year; flirted with the military academies and was in at Annapolis, but ultimately settled on Duke, a school I never heard my friend mention once. And when he did say it, he said it like '.....yeah, he's going to Duke - sigh....'. Jesus.
True story and maybe I'm just oblivious, but we had a couple of plumbing issues to take care of. I polled my neighbors and got a recommendation - just a first name and a phone number. Issues were a tub spout not diverting water to the showerhead in one shower, and the cold water not working properly in another. Guy asked me to send pics of the fixtures, I did, he never wrote back. Assume the job was too small? Anyway, asked another neighbor and they say they use this company that has those brightly colored vans, with their logo everywhere. So, I call them, and they say someone can come out today - and he's on his way! I get a text message from them with our technician's profile. He's 20 and has been working as one for three years. He gets out to the house, then gets out his water testing kit, tests for acidity, hardness, etc. - big dog and pony show and he's not very good at it so he goes back to his van, calls his boss, and then comes back. He does it again. He takes a look at the two fixtures and says 'ah, no problem - easy fixes'. Then asks where the main water shut off is; I show him. It's in the basement next to our water pressure tank for the well (we are on well water in my part of Great Falls) - he asks how old it is and I'm like, 'I didn't even know what this was.' He says it's near end of life and we should consider replacing soon. I can almost see the drool coming out of his mouth at this point. He then goes back to his van, calls his boss, and comes back in with an iPad and some options. He says to do everything, including installing a new water pressure tank and water filtration system, was gonna be $15,000.00. Just the tank was $4,000.00 (priced at Home Depot online for under $1k). Just to fix the tub spout in my shower was $520 (I ended up watching a YouTube video and fixing myself for $8 - the cost of a new spout diverter). I paid the $49 service call and said thanks. They asked if the price was an issue and I said 'It's always good to get second opinions.' He left, but called again the next day. I ignored it.
Or onlyfans.Why get a real education and a real job when there’s kalshi?
We made pass/fail an option at my university during COVID. I think helped and have no problem with what UM is proposing. Besides, do first-year grades really matter? There are plenty of other ways to assess student achievement/progress.
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mikeroweWORKS Foundation
mikeroweworks.org
the big thing now is AI proofing yourself. Trades are a GREAT way to do that. My wife and I have this heated debate a lot. she's BIG on degrees. it was pushed on her by immigrant parents. "That's the one thing they can never take away from you". i tell her what if our kid wants to be an electrician. Comes to us with a fully developed plan to go to trade school, with a fully fleshed out plan to go from apprentice to master, then start his own business. 8-10 years, debt free, 6 figure job. what then?
her response????
"He can get his bachelors in electrical engineering". My wife is a very stubborn woman....
Your A/C goes out in July on a saturday afternoon. How much are YOU willing to pay to get it cooling again? You have a pipe burst and you ahve to shut off the water main to your house, how much are YOU willing to pay to have someone come out and fix it?
Society has so de-valued the trades in favor of so many degrees that cost WAY more and pay WAY less. but the trades are what keeps your car running, keeps your house cool in the summer and warm in the winter, or keeps your lights on, or gets your produce to your grocery store in consumable condition.
yep, after State i was an electrician for 7 years. money can be made.mikeroweWORKS Foundation
the big thing now is AI proofing yourself. Trades are a GREAT way to do that. My wife and I have this heated debate a lot. she's BIG on degrees. it was pushed on her by immigrant parents. "That's the one thing they can never take away from you". i tell her what if our kid wants to be an electrician. Comes to us with a fully developed plan to go to trade school, with a fully fleshed out plan to go from apprentice to master, then start his own business. 8-10 years, debt free, 6 figure job. what then?
her response????
"He can get his bachelors in electrical engineering". My wife is a very stubborn woman....
Your A/C goes out in July on a saturday afternoon. How much are YOU willing to pay to get it cooling again? You have a pipe burst and you ahve to shut off the water main to your house, how much are YOU willing to pay to have someone come out and fix it?
Society has so de-valued the trades in favor of so many degrees that cost WAY more and pay WAY less. but the trades are what keeps your car running, keeps your house cool in the summer and warm in the winter, or keeps your lights on, or gets your produce to your grocery store in consumable condition.
I was going to add this to my other post but your top couple sentences hit exactly on it, kids dont want to do actual work, they want to watch and make videos and get paid for it.
A rookie teacher I was advising gave a first day questionnaire to her kids to get some info. One question was, "where do you see yourself in 5-10 years" You of course got the standard stuff like, pro athlete and rapper/musician, but a majority of her class put "social media star/influencer"
As you mentioned with the girls, this is easy money, but the guys version of it is to try and make the dumbest/funniest videos and get millions of views.
Sadly there are people who do get rich doing this like you mentioned and now every idiot thinks they can do the same.
I worked up there for a 2 years, there are 3 good HS, Poly, City and Western. Other school had this philosophy: if the kid showed up to school and wasnt a jerk every day, they got passed along.
These kids need MATHS.
.1 gun + 2 guns = ?
1 kilo of coke + 3 kilos of coke = ?
2 terms x 15 years in prison = ?
maybe this is the solution (NSFW)These kids need MATHS.
1 gun + 2 guns = ?
1 kilo of coke + 3 kilos of coke = ?
2 terms x 15 years in prison = ?
btw Wallace you now know as Michael B Jordon.
The greatest generation also started our involvement in the Vietnam War. They left it to the boomers to fight it while they held the highest offices throughout the entire period- leading to our defeat. Yes, they also did some great things too.
Every generation has both successes and failures and every generation can either whine about the world previous generations left them or try to improve it.
Don't worry. 90% of the kids will still graduate from high school anyway.
That to me has been the bizarre thing - we do these standardized testing that shows students do not meet the proficiency standards for their grade... and then they still go onto the next grade and go on to graduate. What the point of assessment whether kids are meeting benchmarks if there is no remediation and they "pass"? I know there isn't much stomach for mass repeating of grades, but the alternative seems far worse. BAsically they've made the high school diploma into a worthless piece of scrap paper because you don't know if the "graduate" can write his name or do basic elementary school math or if the kid has mastered Differential Equations.
Michigan is still test optional (just like PSU) and I fully believe that it's just an abyssmal policy because grade inflation makes high school transcripts practivcally worthless. SAT/ACT are far from perfect but at least provide a context that is objective and can be easily compared between different high schools. It's been well documented how California public colleges have been suffering from their decision to not even allow SAT/ACT (not even option) as part of their admissions and how tons of students are being admitted with subpar math skills that aren't even high school level, let along college. The faculty are fighting to getting the system to go back to requiring tests for applications
Even better would be requiring students to submit any AP (or IB, CLEP, etc) scores they have gotten too. Far too many kids take AP classes, get an A for doing nothing and have limited understanding of the material. A kid who gets a 4 or 5 on an AP test is far more meaningful to me than whatever grade they got in the class.
It is an abysmal policy - but unlike PSU, where the vast majority of enrollees never submit test scores (and it is not hard to figure out WHY they don't submit), the vast majority at UM DO submit test scores (because they are high scores, and it greatly increases their chances to get admitted.
UM remains very very selective (acceptance rate around 15%) and very very high yield (ie, if Michigan offers, they accept at a high rate). And those test scores - near 1500 on average, last I looked.
PSU? LOL You don't even want to know how they stack up on selectivity, yield, or scores.
Used to be PSU was just a tier below UMichigan (much like Illinois, Wisconsin and the other betters of the Big 10 that were not Northwestern and Michigan. Now? Not even in the same area code - by any measure. And sucking exhaust fumes from the likes of OSU, Rutgers, and Maryland.
Thanks to the PSU Presidents and Board members. Great job!!!!!!
"WHITE OUT BABY!!!"
Bro now you’re saying you abide by social boundaries. Maybe you are Malvern material .
I won’t stand for this slander of school counselors—I am one…
Seriously, you can copy and paste what you shared straight into what I’ve said to my own students. Our counseling department has been loud about this and administration keeps kneecapping us. Not really ours, it’s not like our principals have anymore power than us, it’s the school board, superintendent, and local/state politicians.
When we work with students one-on-one, the goal is to help them experience consequences, want something different, build responsibility, and mature into young professionals. But that whole process starts with step one—letting kids actually experience consequences—and we’re not even allowed that.
In my experience, the moment a student feels discomfort, boredom, or dislike toward school, the bureaucrats swoop in and pressure us to smooth it over. I’m not kidding, they make up spreadsheet after spreadsheet of my own students—someone far above me who I’ve never met—and send it to me with names of students and who are not cutting it. I do use it to do real, actual counseling, but the real pressure from above is to go to their teachers and convince them to give the kid some leeway. I refuse. It feels gross and the student hasn’t earned anything—which is also demeaning to them that we hold them to such low expectations! I can’t count how many times I’ve told a student point-blank, “If you don’t do the work, you won’t pass, and you’ll end up in summer school or retained.” And then, somehow, they move on anyways without having done anything themselves to change course.
It undercuts everything I’m trying to teach them about becoming a responsible adult.
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I think half of the students at UCLA have a 4.0 unweighted in HS. Straight As. I am not a fan of those standardized tests but it can start to weed out the ones who benefit from non rigorous HS curriculums.
I know that there are a lot of people on this board who don't like change and this is a big shift from the way things were when a lot us were in school. What's wrong with a pass/fail system? Students still need to pass the class. If it helps freshman be more success, then it seems like a good idea to me.
I have noticed PSU has dropped way down the rankings. Maybe bottom 5 of the B10. What has happened? Epic fail by the administration. Is this new prez doing anything different or better to improve things? I would think an engineering degree from PSU still holds some weight in PA and surrounding areas.
Change can be good. This change is just dumb.We don't like change and we don't like the way things are now either.
That’s crazy, almost the exact opposite of every counselor I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve been in three different counties and there’s only ever been two counselors out of 30 that have even been able to calculate GPA the correct way. The best of the group is an old white guy that gets called racist on a daily basis because he’s the only guy who does what you do.I won’t stand for this slander of school counselors—I am one…
Seriously, you can copy and paste what you shared straight into what I’ve said to my own students. Our counseling department has been loud about this and administration keeps kneecapping us. Not really ours, it’s not like our principals have anymore power than us, it’s the school board, superintendent, and local/state politicians.
When we work with students one-on-one, the goal is to help them experience consequences, want something different, build responsibility, and mature into young professionals. But that whole process starts with step one—letting kids actually experience consequences—and we’re not even allowed that.
In my experience, the moment a student feels discomfort, boredom, or dislike toward school, the bureaucrats swoop in and pressure us to smooth it over. I’m not kidding, they make up spreadsheet after spreadsheet of my own students—someone far above me who I’ve never met—and send it to me with names of students and who are not cutting it. I do use it to do real, actual counseling, but the real pressure from above is to go to their teachers and convince them to give the kid some leeway. I refuse. It feels gross and the student hasn’t earned anything—which is also demeaning to them that we hold them to such low expectations! I can’t count how many times I’ve told a student point-blank, “If you don’t do the work, you won’t pass, and you’ll end up in summer school or retained.” And then, somehow, they move on anyways without having done anything themselves to change course.
It undercuts everything I’m trying to teach them about becoming a responsible adult.
99.9% of the counselors I’ve worked with have no idea about what really goes on in a classroom, what a kid’s true abilities are or what the best path for that kid to take is.
Where do you work, if you don’t mind me asking?
"We made pass/fail an option at my university during COVID"
As you probably know, many schools did - including PSU (which had something called "alternative grading", or some made up buzzword term - which basically gave kids the option of getting a "grade", or getting a "pass". Of course, as long as they could fog a mirror, they were wise to take "grade" - see below)
I can't speak for what transpired at your school, but - for sure - at PSU and many others it made the entire Covid time an educational joke.
It turned into a level of grade inflation - and learning DEFLATION - that was stunning.
GPAs university wide went up by a staggering level - some in administration probably took that as "Gee, what a wonderful new system". Anyone even tangentially involved in Higher Ed Inc knows THAT mindset.
Of course, actual education went into the crapper - but who cares about that? Let's just give everyone an "A" and call it a day (much like K-12 - which just about everyone got to see up-close-and-person)'
And many of the damaging aspects that really took off during that time - including the "other than in-person" instruction - became ingrained and remains to this day.
That is all very considered at intentional [SPOILER: It's all about the $, with a dash of lack of competence] - at least at PSU, and I doubt PSU stands completely alone in that regard (though I am quite sure PSU is among the "market leaders")
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