RESPECTING ALL SKILLED PEOPLE
This week I came across a Stephen Hawking quote that reminded me of one of the root problems facing America today, “Asked if he believed he was the most intelligent person in the world, he gave a sharp response, ‘I would never claim this. People who boast about their IQ are losers.’”
As corollary, I’m also troubled by those people who must brandish a PhD degree as if they were wearing a kingly crown. I have forever been suspicious of the individuals who place “,PhD” after their names on all letters and documents they sign. (What does that mean? Are they telling us they’re intellectually superior?)
Henry Allen’s column, “The Knowledge Class vs. The Factory Class,” in The Washington Post puts these issues into practical perspective:
I’d thought these revolutions had liberated stand-ups from this work by throwing them out of it, but what caught my eye was the “meaningless and repetitive.” What an odd thing to say — Mead might just as well be describing what it’s like to be a stockbroker or a big-firm lawyer. He isn’t, though, because these are knowledge-class jobs, and this rap about ‘meaningless’ is usually reserved for the stand-up class. . . . “
What can be done in order for us to become more respectful of all professions?
Certainly, the stigma attached to vocational-technical education must be removed. In many European countries, an apprenticeship program bestows on its graduates respect for their high level of skill. But in America, the vo-tech track is, too often, perceived as dead-end — catering to society’s most disadvantaged by providing a minimum of skills designed to be used as a safety net from poverty.
In these divisive political times, we must all reach out and heal the wounds that have separated us. It is certainly past time for the “Knowledge Class” to cast aside whatever elitist beliefs they have been promulgating and to recognize that skilled working people in all professions deserve the same opportunities and benefits offered by a free society. Above all, hard working Americans in all walks of life deserve our non-judgmental respect.
Today, we automatically admire the exceptionally intelligent and the extraordinarily creative. The highly skilled are equally worthy of that same admiration.
More on Monday – – –
— Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning
March 22, 2017
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)