Published: August 16, 2008 09:50 pm            

Be proud and just do it

Times have changed. In 1885, when Grandpa had completed the third grade, he decided to quit school. It was an acceptable practice then for boys to quit after a few years of schooling.

His first day home, his dad didn’t scold him or make him go to school. He just put Grandpa to work cutting sprouts all day. The second day, his dad again sent him to cut sprouts. By the third day, Grandpa was educated in sprout cutting. He went back to school. He finished eight grades, which was rare in those days.

By 1925, most children attended school for only eight years. Some chose to repeat the eighth grade to gain more knowledge.

Most didn’t attend nor graduate from high school. My folks finished high school and Dad went to college for a year in a time when few went to college.

On a recent TV program, the commentator insisted that every child should get a college degree. I disagree. Every child is not a candidate for college. Some are not able to complete vocational training. Yet, those same youth are able to contribute to society. We need people who will be content to do the unpretentious jobs, the dirty jobs, the down-to-earth jobs, the grubby jobs.

We need plumbers, electricians and mechanics who learn their jobs on the job. Many of them didn’t graduate from high school. Few got a college degree. They start as helpers and learn their ways to respectable professions.

We need tree cutters, tractor drivers, highway mowers, cattle workers, hay haulers and vegetable planters. We need fruit pickers, dairy attendants, fry cooks. All of these require skill, skills rarely taught in schools.

A speaker who was talking about the need for illegal aliens living among us gave as the reason, “They will do the menial jobs that Americans won’t do.”

There’s something wrong if this is so. Society is urging and parents are forcing youth to get a college degree. This, in effect, puts them “above” doing menial labor. Then illegal aliens live here and do those jobs.

Of course, every parent wants more for their child than they had. But in many cases, this tendency to make life easy has reared a generation of youth who are over-educated and ashamed to do menial labor.

The solution? Be proud of who you are, what you can do and then DO IT.

Marjorie Buchanan is a Pawnee resident.

        

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