Education, always the hot topic among parents, continues to dominate a good segment of the news these days. It is proven that simply throwing money at schools yields paltry results, yet government continues to beat this dead horse.
Somehow, it escapes the current technology-bound set that we managed to build this nation without a computer. Envisage, if you will, hardy souls scraping out a bare existence with little more than their bare hands and dogged determination. Problems were identified, pondered and solved with that amazing device that lies between a human’s ears: the brain.
As primitive rafts plied the eastern waters, striving to meet in St. Louis and camber onto rough-riding wagons to make their way west, people set their eyes on a goal and set out to achieve it. If a wagon wheel broke, pioneers used their ingenuity and fixed it. Natural barriers fueled even more zeal in those bound for a better life.
As the nation grew in physical size, so did the impetus of its people to succeed. Railroads opened the west as no other means of conveyance had done in the past, and the die was cast: a burgeoning nation was coming together and would cast a shadow across the world. Free people are doers.
In the wake of “The War to End All Wars”, Americans went about their lives and endured the Great Depression. With World War II came a deeper challenge, defending friends abroad and retribution on Japan for a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
When veterans returned to the states after VE Day and VJ Day, their lives changed markedly. Many used the GI Bill to attend college; others founded their own businesses and settled down to wives, homes and families. Women, badly needed in the defense plants, realized that work outside the home held a viable career path. (The arguments for and against women in the workforce would constitute another column entirely.)
However, there was more to these men than met the eye. They stood as prime examples of two very critical words that begin with a capital E. For now, I’ll table them. First, a bit of background.
If you talk with someone over 50 and ask for a contrast between the childhoods of their generation against that of today, you’ll hear glaring differences. For one thing, their parents didn’t insulate them from hard work. Chores were as common as the next breath, and for kids on the farm, they were not only difficult and time-consuming, but they were also non-gender specific. Girls worked as hard as boys in those days. These children were far more exposed than kids today — and I don’t refer to poor fashion taste but to life experiences that transcend formal schooling.
Let’s take one example, home maintenance. When I grew up, fathers could fix just about anything. It was rare for most families to call a repairman. If your Dad couldn’t fix, a neighbor could. Lending a hand formed a critical piece of everyday life.
When a father performed a chore, it was likely that he had a child at his side. Nothing is more important than observation. Sure, you can learn a lot of things by reading, but watching a job in progress is priceless.
And so, we have the first of the two E words: exposure. If you’ve never seen anything done, you won’t have a clue as how to do it. What of the second E? It positions itself as a prime motivator.
You’ve probably heard the Mantra; there is no substitute for experience. What an understatement! If you learn to solve a problem or fix something, that information is filed away for future reference. We begin to build experience with the first touch on a crib blanket and continue the pattern for a lifetime.
When you combine exposure with experience, the product is the assessment of US held worldwide for decades: exceptionalism. If you don’t think that Americans are exceptional, go overseas and look around. You’ll feel like bowing and kissing the ground upon your return.
Unless and until we begin to educate our children in the skills to survive, we face an unfathomable risk. Imagine if the technology we all take for granted disappeared overnight. Who among us would have the knowledge to eke out an existence in the absence of conveniences?
It’s one thing to be the best at moving information, but if you cannot produce something, figure out how something works, or fix it, you’re toast. Over the past few decades, we have seen our manufacturing jobs leave. It’s not surprising that foreign plants are more modern. They are newer. Our steel plants and rolling mills hit their zenith and were never updated. Profits were put elsewhere than retooling. The result is a rust belt that insults the American psyche.
The picture is bleak if war comes home and we must negotiate with enemies for military parts. When I hear the reports that major US companies are selling high tech products and systems to China, I wonder if we haven’t been feeding the tiger that will feed us.
Learn to do something with your hands beside computer work. Writing by hand requires more deep thinking than hitting the keyboard. Hand-written materials are rare these days. So are men and women who can tackle routine home maintenance with confidence. How prepared are you to really take care of yourself?
Exposure. Experience. Exceptionalism. Do these words describe you? Think about it.