Students Should Get Their Hands Dirty

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54) 09/19/2016 at 16:53 • Filed to: wrenching, vocational school, education, school

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Photo credit: The Laker / Lutz News

A college degree is the new high school diploma. It’s the minimal education most employers require of their workers, no matter how menial the task. A college degree brings with it crippling student debt, living in your parents’ basement, not being able to afford a car, and working your butt off at multiple low paying jobs to not drown into more debt than you already have. There has to be a better way to live. I recently read an article that explained why vocational training, which has suffered major cuts in most school systems, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . This could be that better way.

Read on Right Foot Down or continue below

Where I’m Coming From

Photo credit: Dtaw2001 / Wikipedia

I grew up in the preppy little town of Harvard, Massachusetts. Though not connected to the university of the same name, our academic standards were quite high. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sounds like the name of some fancy prep school, but it was actually our town’s public high school. To this day many consider it !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . There were few dropouts, and nearly everyone went on to college. And then there were the few who switched from Bromfield to Monty Tech ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). We didn’t hear or speak of them much. No one ever said it out loud, but they were considered the ones who couldn’t hack it in the traditional public school system. They were “the dumb kids.” They’d never go to college, and college was all that mattered.

I enjoyed working with my hands. As much as I’d sit through Algebra 2 wondering when I’d ever use it in the real world, I could see exactly how knowledge of photography and printing could help if I was to become a journalist someday. I’m much better at figuring out problems I can put my hands on, like a broken suspension, than solving quadratic equations or remembering the precise date of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Shop and graphic arts classes were among my favorites. I also helped start an amateur radio club, having been licensed at age 15 and showing an aptitude in electronics as well as mechanical stuff. But in a school geared mainly toward college preparation, the fact that I got good grades across the board mattered more than an aptitude for making or fixing things. Due to that, and the stigma against those who switched to vocational school, I stuck to the college path. I majored in English/Communications, with concentrations in broadcasting and writing.

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At least I’m putting that writing part to use. I rode the dot com boom as a technical writer, creating software documentation that nobody ever reads. When that bubble burst in the early 2000s, I was out of work. I became one of those people working menial jobs and struggling to make ends meet for a number of years. Only in the last couple of years have I gotten back into that field as my day job and finally gotten some stability back into my life. (Auto journalism is fun, but the occasional free sample and press car doesn’t pay the bills.)

I was an awesome fork lift driver. Cunning hat, don’t you think?

What Could Have Been

I wonder what turns my life would’ve taken down a vocational route instead. Even in high school I was taking bicycles completely apart, putting them back together again, racing on them, and surviving. Becoming an auto or motorcycle tech would’ve been a completely natural progression. In modern American society, there will ALWAYS be cars and motorcycles needing repair, no matter how the economy is doing. There is no bursting bubble like the dot coms. No dealer will suddenly decide, “We don’t really need our service department – let’s lay them all off and save a few bucks.” That’s exactly what’s happened to me in technical writer and IT positions.

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It’s not quite as simple as that, I know. I’ve heard horror stories from friends working for sleazy shops and dumb dealers about being overworked, underpaid, treated poorly, etc. I also have friends who have had great experiences working for shops, and one friend who owns a shop of his own. People move from company to company all the time now, whatever the industry. The days of working for the same company all your life retired with the baby boomers. My point is that even if an individual job as an auto or motorcycle tech was bad, short of the collapse of civilization itself there will never be a shortage of available work.

Sometimes I really get into my work.

Only dumb people go into trades where they work with their hands, right? Wrong. The truth is that your hands are no good unless you have the brains to use them properly. I’m a pretty smart guy, but I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been doing a repair on my own and simply couldn’t figure out how to make it work. I’m lacking the years of training and experience that a professional auto tech has. Sure, a shop is also equipped with tools the average shadetree mechanic like me doesn’t have, but again, without the knowledge of how to use them properly, they’re no good. You need both brains and brawn (or preferably tools with an excellent mechanical advantage) to be a professional mechanic. Otherwise your engine removals may look more like this.

Perhaps that’s why, in this era of political correctness, we’ve stopped calling them “mechanics” and began calling them “auto technicians.” It’s similar to changing the name of “stewardess” to “flight attendant.” It’s not just political correctness – the new terms convey a higher level of skill than the former designations did because a higher level of skill is required to do the job. Flight attendants are trained to do much more than serve you drinks and show you how to use a seat belt. They’ll also save your butt during an in-flight emergency, thanks to their specialized training about the aircraft’s safety systems and emergency procedures. Similarly, auto techs do far more than point to the connecting rod falling out of your busted engine block saying “well THERE’S your problem!” If fixing cars was so easy, we’d all be fixing them in our driveways.

Plus, modern cars are all computerized. We’re fortunate that you can get a simple WiFi or Bluetooth OBD2 interface for under $10 these days, with apps a-plenty to read and clear codes. But how, exactly, do you interpret a P0340 camshaft position sensor error when your particular car doesn’t even have a camshaft position sensor? It’s the auto tech’s training and experience that tells him that when a Saturn S series throws that error it really means that there’s a misfire and he should check the ignition system.

Not An Old Boys’ Club

I said “he,” but let’s not be sexist. There’s no reason why women can’t wrench besides societal norms that say they should be playing with dolls instead. Screw that. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! writer Kate Murphy is far better at motorcycle wrenching than I’ve ever been. I ask her advice about motorcycles regularly because she knows her stuff. When she fixed a flat tire for me I had to take this picture to show both the dirt on her hands and her nail polish. Brilliant!

And then there was the time I went to Midas to get my Civic wagon’s muffler welded back on until I could replace it properly. The cute girl at the counter took my information and my keys. It’s not unusual for a place like this to have a cute girl at the counter to help customers and lessen the blow of an expensive repair bill. But then, much to my surprise, she drove my car into a bay, put it up on a lift, and welded it herself. The joke was on me for assuming she was just a pretty face, and rightfully so. Her repair did exactly what I needed – it held the exhaust together until I could afford and purchase a proper replacement.

Image credit: Katherine Young

Unfortunately, women and young girls face a great deal of pressure not to pursue such “manly” endeavors. Instead they’re pressured to look pretty and pursue careers that society considers more appropriate for women, such as nursing or administrative assistants (they’re not just “secretaries” anymore). While these are important jobs, why shouldn’t a girl who’s interested in science, technology, or mechanical skills receive the same encouragement to pursue them as boys? A lack of a Y chromosome didn’t prevent the girl at Midas from welding up my exhaust, or stop Kate from operating a tire mounting machine. The Vikings understood this – !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fought alongside male warriors in battle. It’s too bad that modern male-dominated society has lost sight of this. Until 1920 women weren’t even allowed to vote in the US. That’s less than 100 years ago!

Avoiding Crippling Debt

College is, as we say in my native Massachusetts, “wicked expensive.” Two college age friends of mine recently moved to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It’s sad that literally fleeing the country has become a more viable option to get an affordable education than even the state school they previously attended.

Yet some people, like Evan Fischbach of Saline, Michigan, are !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . That’s darn good money, especially for a 19 year old. The big push to send everyone to college has left local dealers scrambling to find anyone with a clue and handy with a wrench to employ in their service departments. “I’m not rich,” says Fischbach, “But I’m not hurting, either.” Personally, I’d rather be happy than rich any day.

Fischbach may never have a cushy desk job pulling down a six or more figure salary per year. Or maybe he will, if he sticks it out in the industry and goes into management. He could become the Captain Kirk of service managers, reaching a high ranking position at an unusually young age. Regardless, Fischbach likes working on cars, and has found a way to make a good living doing it without the massive expense of going to college. He could certainly take classes, earn certifications, and such, but it’s great to see that some places still offer on-the-job training instead of only hiring people with prior experience, which prevents the vicious Catch-22 cycle of those without experience having no way to gain the experience they need to get hired.

I’m not saying don’t go to college. It’s by far the preferred way to go these days, and not having a degree can severely limit your employment opportunities, especially if you’re young and lacking experience. But I believe that there is no one right way for everyone. If your talents and interests tend more toward working on cars than theoretical physics, you should not only be allowed but encouraged to pursue that. At least some rudimentary vocational training should return to our schools so that students have a chance to try it out, get their feet wet, and see if a more vocational education is right for them. And the stigma of vocational school being for “the dumb kids” needs to disappear. Even those on a college-bound path would benefit from some basic training with tools and fabrication.

You hear about the demise of the middle class all over the news these days. Perhaps encouraging vocational training is a way to refill the diminishing ranks of the middle class, provide a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, and avoid a lifetime of indentured servitude to pay off student loans.

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yamahog > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 16:58

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An accredited engineering college should have ample opportunity, if not requirement, to get ones’ hands dirty.

S65 > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:04

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I can’t believe they thought it was acceptable to just rip the engine out like that.

Justin Hughes > yamahog 09/19/2016 at 17:04

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No argument there.

jariten1781 > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:14

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I also got caught in the dot-com bubble but rather than waiting it out I just said fuck it and joined the Navy. That's parlayed into a hell of a lot more diverse options than my degree with a gap in relevant employment ever would have.

E92M3 > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:17

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“Blue collar” jobs are the only ones that can’t be offshored. I predict they will out pay the typical bachelor degree aka middle management jobs one day. Many HVAC repairmen already bring home six figures. Plumbers do well too. It’s just a matter of time as people become more and more mechanically inept. Do you know how many people can’t even put IKEA furniture together? Or install a ceiling fan?

Scott > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:18

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First of all, shop around before going to school. A colleague of mine is going through this with his youngest son right now. His son can stay here in NY and get in state tuition. Or can move back to his home state of Idaho, go to a college there as an out of state student. For the out of state student cost of a 4 year degree, it will cost him what 1 year in state locally in NY costs. If he stays with relatives until he qualifies for in state in Idaho it will cost him less than the 1 year here in NY, but he will be delaying his degree by that amount.

When my oldest niece was in college she announced to the family she was taking a year off from school to figure out her major. My Mom had a fit, I told my niece good for her. I explained my position in support her this way, I went to a 2 year tech school. I make more money with that 2 year degree, and got my career started while most my friends where still finishing up their college degrees. Only 1 friend actually used his degree for his career, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and what degree's he needed to have to do that. BTW I earn on my own what my colleague and his wife make as a couple, one with a MA, the other with a PHD. They are still paying for their schooling, mine is was is payed off. All my other friends had no clue, left school with debt and a degree that was not very useful to them. The few that had no clue, that have sort of used their degree got something like a business degree.

I told my niece that many successful people do not have a degree, and a degree is not a guarantee of success, having a goal and plans on how to achieve it are far more useful. If a degree is a part of that plan, it is money well spent, if you have no plan, and a degree that gets you very little, you have made a terrible investment.

Of course my mom made me eat my words by pointing out my niece had a 4 year scholarship that if she maintained a high enough GPA would cover all 4 years, and with a lower GPA would cover the majority of her costs... opps I forgot about that... so much for the good investment. However my niece has done well once she figured out what exactly she wanted, and she only paid for 2 year out of pocket.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:19

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This is great kinja, my niece has shown an interest in all things mechanical so I am doing my best to encourage and grow it. She enjoys playing with legos so that’s all we buy her for her birthday and Christmas.

I figure once I start putting together the engine on my Series Land Rover I’ll have her do some of the wrenching.

unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 17:29

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Yes to all of this. My college won’t even let me use the machine shop due to liability, only graduates can. Also our shop class in hs was knocked down and converted into an english wing. It would have been nice for other kids to learn how to change their oil and rotate tires, but they gave up the space before I even got to high school. The only issue is that I had to read the The Giver which is no better (and not my taste) than Atlas Shrugged, an Ayn Rand book that serves better as toilet paper than a book. I only learned how to wrench with my old man. Nothing feels better than being an mechanical engineer student who can check their dipstick and turn a wrench without panicking or using youtube. So yes there are less people that are mechanically inclined. I would blame higher education and high school counselors discouraging students from trade schools and labeling them as low quality education.

Scott > E92M3 09/19/2016 at 17:33

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A friend of my dads was a professor at University of Minnesota. He taught Mechanical Engineering the late 60's's to mid 90's. at the beginning of every year he taught he asked by a show of hand, how many students had rebuilt a car engine? how many had rebuilt a small engine? How many had done their own repairs on their own cars?

He said back when he started teaching most students raised their hands for the first question, Almost all raised their hand for the 2nd question, and Rarely did anyone not raise their hand for the 3rd question.

When he was getting ready to retire, Rarely did any one raise their hands for the first question, very few raised their hands for the second, but pretty much every year at least a couple people did. About half would raise their hands for the 3rd question, but would say things like, I did my own oil changes.

A friend from highschool went to the University of Minnesota, in 4 years he got a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering. His mother and I showed him most of the things he did on his car. He now has a Phd in Aerospace engineering.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > yamahog 09/19/2016 at 17:37

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I got a mechanical engineering degree at a fully accredited, well respected university. There was no getting your hands dirty. Some lab and workshop work but it was very mild and mostly technical (using measurement equipment etc).

just-a-scratch > yamahog 09/19/2016 at 18:11

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The key word there is 'should'. Too often even ABET accredited schools keep the students in classrooms too much.

yamahog > just-a-scratch 09/19/2016 at 18:40

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That’s just classroom activities. There are tons of clubs and student teams available at any respectable institution.

yamahog > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/19/2016 at 18:44

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First off, that’s pretty weak. And secondly, with all due respect, if you had time on your hands I’d find it hard to believe there weren’t any clubs/student orgs/etc accessible. I wasn’t referring to exclusively in-class opportunity.

E92M3 > Scott 09/19/2016 at 18:59

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Becoming a throw away society is partially to blame. If peoples lawnmower, fridge, etc dies, they just go buy another one instead of repairing it. Sometimes it’s cheaper.

Tristan > jariten1781 09/19/2016 at 19:04

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Good on you. I dropped out of college after 3 years of racking up debt back in 2006. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but with $40,000 in debt I sure as Hell knew I didn’t want to take out one more loan. My sister planted the seed in my mind to join the Air Force, and it was the best damn thing I ever did for myself. After 8 years of active duty I transferred to the ANG, and I’m getting ready to start working full time as a Guard Technician while using my GI Bill to finish my degree. The military seriously changed my life for the better. But, kids would rather cry for $15 minimum wage and free school while disrespecting the very country that would be giving them these luxuries than actually step up to the plate. Personally, I will absolutely encourage my children to look to the military as an option rather than blindly jumping into college without a plan.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Justin Hughes 09/19/2016 at 20:06

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You can make six figures turning wrenches, you don’t have to go into management. And you can do even better moving up to work for a manufacturer depending on the position, again without the need for a cushy desk.

And depending on where you work and your own skills, being a technician can require some pretty strong thinking skills. Consider that some cars have more than 100 computers communicating over more than a dozen different types of networks operating at different speeds with varying priorities. Then consider we haven’t even started taking about mechanical systems yet, like direct fuel injection, diesel exhaust aftertreatment, variable valve lift and timing, variable length intakes, etc. And then systems that directly combine electrical and mechanical systems, such as transmissions and breaking systems combined with train and stability programs. Care to diagnose something? I can give you a vague complaint with no specific information, you will find no fault codes, and then have to analyze raw data while duplicating the complaint. Sound easy?

Sorry if I’m sounding combative, I’m not trying to 

Possibly similar to you, I graduated high school with honors, won some writing awards while there, all while not giving a shit because I knew what I wanted to do. I took the path you didn’t. That’s not too say it was all easy sailing, this career takes effort and sometimes long hours. The first five years can be hell. Economic downturns can be brutal (ugh 2007-2010 or so, I considered going back to college to major in English!). But once you get to a certain level you have a bargaining chip with immense power... your experience and skill.

Justin Hughes > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 09/19/2016 at 22:46

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You don't sound combative - you sound like you're mostly agreeing with me. :) Thanks for the insight!

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > yamahog 09/20/2016 at 02:37

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No formula student, no hands on clubs after study hours, you could gain access to labs and do some workshop work but it was heavily regulated. 9-5 only (had to be supervised by a lab tech and thats pretty much when they worked) and limited hand tools and space. They were so frightened of being sued you couldnt do a whole lot.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Justin Hughes 09/20/2016 at 03:23

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Oh good. Sometimes my intent doesn’t come through in text.

jariten1781 > Tristan 09/20/2016 at 06:47

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Yep, I've shuffled a number of folks into one branch or another of the military. Especially those who are intending to go into or struggling making it through non-career oriented paths (think Psychology, philosophy, English, History, etc.). Even if the GI bill didn't exist it still opens many more career paths that you would never have had you struggled through getting a marginally useful degree with a mountain of debt. When I got my first post-Navy job it was in a career field that I didn't know existed (literally, I applied without even knowing what the title meant but my skillset kinda matched the bulleted description), that "required" credentials I didn't have, and years of experience in the field which (obviously) I'd not achieved since I'd never even heard of the field. The confidence, flexibility, and early opportunities (ie what other field allows a 24 year old to lead a 70 person team on a >500M project) sailed me in and that was solely available in the military.

yamahog > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/20/2016 at 07:36

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Sorry you missed out and all, but that doesn’t sound normal.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > yamahog 09/20/2016 at 07:46

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From what I hear it’s the norm in the UK. The unis with formula student are a bit better but otherwise health and safety regs keep everyone restricted.

yamahog > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 09/20/2016 at 08:05

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Oh, I thought we were talking about USA #1, since that’s what OP was talking about. But yea, apparently we actually do things.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > yamahog 09/20/2016 at 13:20

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We had to wear steel toe shoes for woodworking...

ateamfan42 > Justin Hughes 09/20/2016 at 15:22

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Parts of this article really resonated with me and reminded me of my high school experience. My school had a solid vocational program, offering a number of interesting fields of study, including auto repair, home building, and truck driving. I would have enjoyed an opportunity to put my hands to use at these.

However, the educational programs pidgin-holed one so that such diversity of education was impossible for anyone planning a college future. Voc-center students could not take college-prep level classes, and were required to take dumbed-down English and math. Courses such as pre-calculus (that I would need for my engineering college education) would be completely unavailable to anyone attending the vocational center. So such practical education was closed to me if I also wanted to pursue a professional career. Students of the truck driving program could get their CDL in high school for free. If I would ever like to learn to drive a big rig, I’ll need to shell out thousands of dollars to attend truck driving school.

In many ways, the “comply or get out” mentality existed in all aspects of the school. My senior year I was forced to take honors-level English (which seemed unnecessary to a future engineering student) simply because the administration insisted in scheduling regular college-level English at the same time as physics. If you didn’t fit their idea of what program a student should take, then too bad.

ateamfan42 > yamahog 09/20/2016 at 15:27

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And secondly, with all due respect, if you had time on your hands....

Time was an unaffordable luxury in my 4-year engineering program. When we weren’t in the lab at 2am working on technical homework, we were busy wasting our time on required humanities classes (so we would graduate “well-rounded students”). I would much rather have spent those wasted hours learning practical skills like welding, CAD, or machining.

If I had to do it all over again, I think I’d take 5 or 6 years just so I’d have a hope of participating in some extracurricular activities between classwork.

Justin Hughes > ateamfan42 09/20/2016 at 16:03

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Traditional schools are almost never set up in a “choose your own adventure” format, but the pigeonholing at yours seems worse than most. Nice that you could get a CDL for free, though.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Justin Hughes 09/20/2016 at 19:34

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Outsourcing has created a culture of looking down on blue-collar jobs. Some cultures look down on any physical labour.

A good plumber can make more than an engineering graduate.

ateamfan42 > Justin Hughes 09/21/2016 at 08:24

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Nice that you could get a CDL for free, though.

Well *I* couldn’t, because I had college plans. But a few of my friends over at the vocational center did, and I know that resource came in handy in their lives.

Conan > Justin Hughes 09/29/2016 at 23:15

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Opportunities are out there. I’m merely an enthusiast government and history teacher but my several of my students will graduate high school with technical certifications and electronics training enough to to work OR go on to community college. Provided they do well they can get a shot at http://www.racingcollege.com/ and actually get experiences as race techs for a NASCAR team... all for the price of community college tuition. VIR and several oval tracks aren’t that far away from us, either, so they can gain practical experience in the process. Keeping up with the “college experience that’s actually useful” front there are schools in the state where they can transfer into automotive or motorsports engineering after their two years of community college if they’ve gotten good enough grades.

Conan > Tristan 09/29/2016 at 23:17

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It gets me yelled at sometimes but I encourage my students to always consider the military as an opportunity. I think it really depends on the state.

Justin Hughes > Conan 09/30/2016 at 09:24

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Things do seem to be slowly transitioning into more flexible education models over time. This is a good thing, because not everyone learns the same way. I definitely learn best by hands-on experience rather than a classroom setting.