And if a German at any time decides he has made the wrong path choice, he can re-enter the system and attempt a different path, at no cost. Thus the electronics tech who decides he wants now to be an engineer may re-enter the school path, change his 'major', and apply diligence that may have been lacking in his youth, and improve his position.
Steve, you may well have hit it on the head when you said they leave school with pride in themselves. !! Richard --- Steve MacSween <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [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 > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
