Sunday, May 24, 2009

Not Everyone Can Be A "Knowledge" Worker

The Case for Working With Your Hands - NYTimes.com

High-school shop-class programs were widely dismantled in the 1990s as educators prepared students to become “knowledge workers.” The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass. To begin with, such work often feels more enervating than gliding. More fundamentally, now as ever, somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses.


This article, by Matthew Crawford, a motorcycle mechanic who also has a Ph.D. is wonderfully thought provoking.

1 comment:

Nikostratos said...

Not to worry if Dave gets in we will see a big rise in the serving class.....seeing as there is gonna be no other type employment and what with no welfare.

forced labour cameron style.still if thats what the people want