The Power of Positive Thinking
April 25, 2017 Are you a grouchy person, always complaining about something? If so, please stay away from me. Not just me. Nobody likes to hang around with a grouch. The Power of Positive Thinking was a best-selling book from the 1960s that is still
Earth Day 2017
April 11, 2017 Something’s missing April 22 has in recent times come into its own as a pseudo-holiday when organizers try to turn the country’s attention to environmental concerns. I’m all for keeping the environment clean – who isn’t? It’s like being for motherhood and
Dummies Need Not Apply
March 28, 2017 A skilled trade requires smarts Pardon my rant, but when something annoys the hell out of me I have trouble keeping quiet. One of the things that sets me off is when college-educated people look down on the trades as something less
My Old High School – Some Things Don’t Change For The Better
March 7, 2017 Way back when we carried slide rules rather than calculators to math classes, I attended and graduated from one of the best urban public high schools in the country – Lane Technical High School in Chicago. It still carries a reputation as
Construction Plagued by Labor Shortages
February 2017 Service firms also cry for trade workers Most of our economy has largely recovered from the devastation of the “Great Recession” that started in 2008. One notable exception is construction. Home building is still at recession levels, and one reason is a lack
Student Loan Debt Worsens
February 2017 College is increasingly a bad buy Last month the news media was filled with a story that ought to send a chill up the spine of anyone thinking of taking out a student loan to attend college. The U.S. Education Department admitted that
Don’t Be Misled About Pay Scales
January 24, 2017 Skilled trades compete well with college grads According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 68% of high school graduates go on to attend college. Young people face enormous pressure from family and friends to do so. The biggest reason is the
College Enrollment Continues To Drop
January 10, 2017 But vocational enrollments are up. Regular readers of this blog know that a consistent theme to my articles has to do with the fact that vocational education in a skilled trade is a worthwhile alternative to college for mechanically minded individuals. That
Are You Job-Ready? – Part 4
December 6, 2016 Act like a professional This will be my final blog on the subject of job readiness. The topic is professionalism. What does professionalism mean? One dictionary defines it as “the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person