I want to take you back to 1997, back when I was in junior high. Yes, I wore a bag over my head then too, but for different reasons. (Nobody told me all I needed to do was flip the lights off!) I was finishing up my last year at John Sedgwick Junior High in Port Orchard, Washington. This was a school that still had good electives: I had taken woodshop and metalshop, Home Economics (hey, gotta learn to cook somehow…) and was steeling myself up for my first year of high school and the grand prize, auto shop. But something strange happened at Sedgwick in 1997-98: the Computer Lab became a thing. I don’t remember a lot of details, but I remember that all of the systems were top-tier for the time, there was a CAD-CAM program on one station, what amounted to a press that was used to stress-test popsicle stick bridges we designed, and a robotic arm. You want to know what I really learned out of that class? Here goes:
- My classmates were even more obnoxious here than other locations.
- CAD-CAM had uses, and
- The only thing I got the robotic arm to do was a highly rude moving gesture. Use your imagination.
What did I do in woodshop? Sanded, routed, edged, built a small lockable box, stained, and figured out that the large belt sander could be a friend and an enemy. Woodshop? Made a cross pendant out of a small cube of metal, learned how to use a tap and die set, learned how to take a lump of whatever and polish it up until it freaking gleamed, and if I had been able to pay up for the lessons, I could’ve learned how to do basic tack welding. And I’ve used both skillsets quite a bit since.
Unfortunately, the metalshop and woodshop were axed from the school’s lineup that year for Computer Lab. And when I bemoaned that fact, the responses were almost textbook: they are dirty, dingy jobs done by poor people who can’t or won’t go to college. They will look like Cletus from the Dukes of Hazzard, will have the IQ of mayonnaise that has been left in the sun, and should be sterilized so they will not breed. And that apparently, I will be one of those people, so I shouldn’t come to school tomorrow…or ever. Ah, the pure evil that is the groupthink of junior high school students.
While I have no trouble looking back at what pre-teens spouted off in a classroom twenty years ago with humor, what I can’t even smile at is what that kind of thinking has done to the world we are in today. While many industries, like construction, fabrication, and any other “hands-on” field are expecting qualified employee shortages, let’s take a look at qualified, trained automotive mechanics. We aren’t talking the guys at Pep Boys swapping tires so much as we are talking the guy at the dealership who is elbows deep in the transmission out of your car on a warranty visit. From my interactions with service advisors and techs themselves, yes, the work still blows. But it’s paid work, and if you can tolerate the usual BS of angry customers, overreaching bosses, and dealership politics (and, in some cases, some overly-trumpeted meme-worthy stories that scare away people), you can find yourself a solid, well-paying job that has security so long as there’s fuel.
Yes, there are schools like Lincoln Tech, UTI, and the like, but manufacturers are starting to realize just how bad the storm is that’s appearing over the horizon. Cars are more advanced than they ever have been. Around 253 million cars are on the roads. Average age: 11.4 years…optimal time for things to need fixing, don’t you think? From a business perspective, it’s a gold mine, especially when you consider that people are holding onto cars longer and longer. A year or two of training, the initial investment of tools, and some training from the manufacturer that hires you so that you are competent in their vehicles enough to be placed into regular use, usually for the cost of one year of a four-year school’s tuition rate. Again, what’s not to like?
Where are the people who want to make money by actually working for it? Where are the people who are starting out after high school who actually have a head on their shoulders who have no problem working with their hands? What do we need to do to reverse twenty years of bullshit thinking? Do we need to have Mike Rowe visit every college campus and tell students that they are doing it all wrong? Do we need to have a presentation in high school for seniors, showing the differences between someone with a standard BS in (whatever) versus someone with a trade, a couple of years of training, on the job training and experience? I think so. Show them year after year from high school until their 10th, 15th anniversary reunion. See the difference in debt, pay, and quality of life…maybe that’ll drive the point home.
Well said.
I remember a prof I had years ago, “Do what they’re telling you not to do”.
Amen, brother!
I have to get in on this.The 10 years have already passed! I have worked in a dealership for 30 years and been working on cars,trucks,motorcycles from one end to the other all my life.The trade schools(I wont say names) but all of them,are taking the kids money(40,000)dollars and giving them and piece of paper and telling them they are fully trained and they dont know shit! They start on the job(the lube rack) as a oil changer and dont know what a drain plug or zirk fitting is.They refuse to put their cell phones down or stop blasting rap crap through the shop and when you finely get the plug pulled they wine and complain about how(its not fair), the same for not letting them destroy your tools(its not fair).I have been called into the office muti times about how there is a new way to deal with young people(you have to prase then all the time) you cant tell them they just f___ed up a 10,000 dollar piece of equipment and be pissed off about it and let them know,I have been told I have to change or loose my job(become politily correct) and listen to thease hot shit know it alls. GM has its own technical training for technicians(which is a joke like the tech schools).The politly correct name is technician. I have been told by other people that when the service writers talk to customers about the dealership they will say we have 20 technicians and 1 mechanic! Even the journeymen in the shop are as bad as the kids coming in.My job in the dealership is to fix everybodys f___ups and i call my self the pooper scooper.The owner told me if I dont do it I will be fired.At 60 years old were will I go as all the paper pushers in the above article by the unknown parts guy over the last 30-40 years have made a large mess.I know I am not alone.I have had a flew good teachable kids come through and they get tired of the bull shit and leave. We still see each other out side of the dealership and I still teach them my way as they want to learn from me my way of fixing all things and not the paper pushing way. I am sick and tired of hearing old school and new school! Its all the same! Just a differnt spin on how its put together,just ask it what it wants and give it what it wants!!! I learned from Andy Granatelli years ago that everything is BASIC ! This is what needs to be done is get back to BASICS and get away from the paper pusher way of teaching as it is failing.It does not matter if it is a car,truck,motorcycle, airplane,jet, or rocket.The kids are being trained to change parts and not fix things.They are not trained in the how or why things happen,BASICS ! So the 10 years is up the way I see It.I want to hear from others on Bang Shift as I know there are other good MECHANICS out there and get your input on how to push back!
You hit the nail on the head there. I know a few people who have gone to these \”schools\” that are exactly how you described, and still make about minimum wage not knowing shit and finding it unfair that I\’m at where I\’m at.
I never went to college. All I did was learn as much as I could, work on my own cars and friends for the price of the required parts and tools, and that paid off pretty fucking well.
Exactly!!! I heard a college student \”downing\” Trump because he was \’helping\’ people that didn\’t want to further their education and work with their hands… She was an economics major-yet had no idea that she was getting compound interest charged quarterly to her student loan! Now the jokes on her- who\’s going to fix her car when she has to deliver pizzas after graduating!!!
I\’ll give you a different take. I\’m roughly the same age as upcg, 33, so let me explain how \”I\” saw those classes in middle school. I wasn\’t really for metal shop, or wood shop, but the computer lab always peaked my interest. I could basically make something from nothing, with no other skills other than what was in my head. Now don\’t get me wrong, I completely believe that ALL of the trades should still be taught in schools, but for me it just made more sense as I wasn\’t particularly talented in anything else. I looked at a computer and was like, if I learn how to work this thing, figure out how it works, then I can create anything. Metal / Wood shop sure you can make things, but you\’d need materials, and equipment, something my poor ass didn\’t have.
I always loved tech, but I grew up in a classic car family. Dad raced dirt track and demo derby, loved going to the track. But, I wasn\’t really ever into them that much. Turn to me being 18 and needed a job out of high school, wasn\’t going to college, couldn\’t afford to. Took a job as a delivery driver for the green team. First off, I didn\’t know shit about auto mechanics. But, eventually because I worked my ass off as a driver, I got thrown on the counter. Let me tell you something, nothing will bring your ego / confidence down more and quicker than being told you don\’t know shit from a customer after a 5 minute conversation. This happened a lot, but I stuck with it, and then it started happening a lot less.
15 years later, I\’m still in the Industry running another companies store. But, I got an IT degree, and a business degree. While other guys in my stores are building their hot rods, I\’m building custom water looped pc\’s with concepts that I learned from the auto industry. Kids today really never had a chance. They grew up in the age that everything is available in a few seconds, and thats really all they know. Patience is non-existent with them. If things don\’t go their way in a small amount of time, they don\’t wait it out to get better or see if things change. It\’s really not their fault, but its the way it is.
Everything in the world is disposable at this point. We understand this, and try to fix what we can and know how to. The kids today never had to fix anything, because when shit broke, it was cheap enough to just replace it. Thats why we have all of these try and see techs that just throw parts at shit without figuring out what the root of the problem really is. I mean hell, in 10 years there will be people out there looking for job\’s that will have no idea what a distributor cap is, because they\’ve never seen one. It\’s not their fault that everything changed so fast.
Those tech schools are a joke. Wanna learn how to diagnose issues on late model stuff? learn how to PROPERLY use a scan tool, to use a multi-meter, to use a soldering iron, to understand that shits changing every 5 years now. Our parents bitched about our work ethic, just like we are bitching about theirs now. But people are a product of their environment, so if you grow up in the era of instantaneous results, how are you supposed to grow above that?
I read this and thought, sounds like 212 Terry. Right on brother. Keep pounding it in the young ones heads. Eventually they will get it. The weak and lazy are that way cause someone accepts that, and doesn’t demand better. I see it at scouts, my kids school, the park, everywhere. We as adults have to teach them. And demand they know.
The proper blame goes to the people who have convinced teachers that they are no longer teachers but ‘educators.’
When I was a kid in the 60’s, TV repairman where thriving. But fixing TV’s was expensive and TV’s got cheaper and more reliable. How amny TV repairmen do you know today?
Cars are moving in the same direction. Now days, a smart consumer buys or leases a new car, and sells it before the tires wear out. You can get a new car for $150 – $400 per month. Every time a used car breaks, or needs brakes, or tires, you spend $700 -$3000+. It’s cheaper to own new. Mechanics will become like the TV repairman.
Color Televisions cost 400 bucks in the early 70’s and cost the same today and that is why repair is no longer a popular option. Cars are not 2500 bucks today, if they were we would drive them for a year or two and shit can them. There are over 250 million used cars on the road and every single one of them will need repaired. Even the lease cars need maintenance and repair. From generators to construction equipment, lawn mowers to aircraft, everything needs repair and some one to repair it.
Hey Anon. Right on brother!! I am a dealership retired mechanic with over 35 years experience on the job. The basics will get stuff fixed. My current job is “helping” dealership “techs” fix cars. It’s a shame and a joke at the same time. Most of the new guys only respond when praised or led by the hand and are parts chuckers. Get out the parts cannon Jimmy!! I’m afraid to take my car to the dealer for anything, even a recall that’s 100% covered.