College to offer BA in skilled trades

[Ben H]

http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/02/the ... ource=SFFB

[Chad Fabry]

I wish I was 30 years younger.

[ghentjr]

I wish I was 30 years younger.

I'm with you. Our first home was a condemned 1865 two story with a (get this) three (3) seat outhouse. (The family that poops together, etc) We took it down to the frame to renovate. We did not keep the outhouse, but we retained the Sears catalogs. I was, and am still impressed at the fine detail work to put the frame together. The trim detail, mortise & tenon, the joining, 1" thick clapboard siding, all designed to last forever. People may have been less educated, but much more intelligent about construction in those days.

[kurt]

Stuff got built (more or less) the same way for 750+ years, then the last 50-60 years, it all went out the window for a lot of reasons, some good, some bad, some really bad.

I'm in the generation where I remember going to Lumbermen's Warehouse and ordering a bunk of clear old growth vertical grain cedar, and if I found a split or knot, I sent the board back and they'd send me another. In my short time, good lumber has essentially disappeared. I still have sources, but they're all highly specialized and not at all able to supply the larger industry.

In the time that engineered materials and processes were on the rise, education and training was relegated to the ash heap. Right when training became critically important, it was eliminated. A really long time ago I was going to be an Industrial Arts teacher. I could see the writing on the wall in the early 70's and knew it was going away but had no idea where it was headed.

[Jim Baird]

...time was we had a labor union and trades guild structure that took care of this kind of training.

In this modern world, calling something a degree program makes it eligible for tuition and loans for such structure that puts the learner in a debt situation for ten years at minimum, and the biggest beneficiaries are the educational and financial industries.

[kurt]

Everyone bemoans the decline of skilled trade, but fail to understand one pays for skill. Everyone wants to go to heaven, no one wants to die.