While there will continue to be a place for blue collar jobs, such as in plumbing, electrical work, construction, transportation, and so on and so forth, it has to be acknowledged that those that are in the white collar professions are often the very same people that make the most money and have then the best secured and most satisfactory lives. One’s livelihood is important not only for the individual, but also for the overall satisfaction or lack, thereof, of a given person’s life. While, there is no shame in whatever work that a person does, as long as that work represents something of value and worth to society, there is the inconvenient fact, that not only do some jobs pay a heck of a lot more money in compensation, but also that there are certain fundamental skill-sets that are pretty important to have, in order to not be susceptible to being taken advantage of. For instance, those that are functionally illiterate are pretty much at the mercy of those that are literate, in which, those then suffering from that disadvantage are much more easily taken advantage of. So too, those that do not have basic mathematical skills, are often the very same people, that have difficulty in understanding the importance of mortgage interest rates, car loan interest rates, or even the unit price of grocery store items. That is to say, those that are challenged through the word or through math, or both, are typically dependent upon the good will of others, in order to come out okay.
Additionally, there are many people that have a very good work related skill-set along with having a good reputation, that thus believe that they can go into business for themselves, and perhaps then employ a few other people; but whenever the leader of that organization is not competently skilled in the comprehension of the written word or the fundamental mathematics so needed to best understand how to price their business services and payroll, then the end result will often be something far less than ideal.
All of the above, basically signifies that even for those that have little or no interest in a formal education, that they at a minimum, need to know the value and importance of reading, writing, and arithmetic; and further to the point, this is at a minimum, what everyone needs to learn within our public educational school system. Indeed, there has to be a minimum educational standard, that all those that are citizens of America, should be competent at, and the younger the age that this is accomplished, the better.
While this nation preaches the value of “no child being left behind,” the actual result, thereof, is indicative that many children are left behind, and even worse than that, far behind. In this modern era, this nation needs to concentrate more on being especially inclusive of those that are the most vulnerable amongst us, so that these disadvantaged people have a fair opportunity to be able to live out the ideals and dreams of this nation, by being able to pursue happiness, and to have freedom, best secured by having a solid and practical educational foundation to stand upon.