[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Our plant is of German origin. The Germans have an entirely different > work ethic, and their educational system works in a significantly > different manner, producing workers who care about what they do.
In this respect, Canada and the U.S. (and Britain, certainly) share the same legacy of shame. What the Germans do right, is that if a student early on shows either no interest in a university-oriented learning path, or clearly shows a technical interest that will lead to a trade, they stream them into a different learning environment. But they do insist they learn. They are taught *something* beyond shop skills, in terms of higher science theory, albeit adapted to trades skills. I think the larger point is that they leave school with some pride in themselves. Here we don't seem to even care if people destined for trades finish high school. Not that that means much these days, when I see university grads who can't put a verb into a sentence. Our curse was decades of plentiful, relatively high-paid factory jobs that lulled our governments into complete inattention to ensuring blue-collar workers had skills. If Bobby couldn't read, well "No problem, he can always get a job down at the plant, cousin Fred works there and makes $20hr." For some reason many still live in that thought bubble, even though those jobs have all but evaporated from this continent. Mac
