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Awhile back I heard some say that teachers might go the way of the dinosaur. You could give each kid a computer and internet, and they could learn from home, saving the cost and maintenance of brick and mortar schools, they could learn at their own pace, then the lessons would be on line, etc. Keeping an open mind, I thought about how many things I'd learned on line...could it be that this generation of students would have the latest material, a library the size of the world, lightning fast computing at their fingertips, etc.? Here's a blog entry dated about a month before COVID:
Gee, that didn't go so well, did it? True, we weren't prepared for it and maybe it would go better next time. My school, and probably a vast majority of schools, gave the kids every benefit of the doubt that we could and to be sure, some students gamed the system. How much can we be sure they actually learned? Not much, especially in the beginning of the pandemic. What knowledge did they not acquire in level 1 that they would need in level 2 of their courses?
There was a big concern about food when COVID hit. We knew how many kids depended on school breakfast and lunch to get enough to eat. In fact they set up tables so parents could drive up and get bags of food, even though nobody was in classes. When we went hybrid, at the end of the week lunch ladies would come around with food for the weekends. Some kids were loathe to accept the help openly but their families needed it, especially if the parents were sick, and some students got jobs to support their families. I often think this is where churches would step in (and I'm sure some do) but school seemed to take on more of those functions since I started.
Also, students lost some important things that are not graded or even covered in the books. In May, after the first full year of return to normal, I was talking to my (high school) asst principal and she said she'd never seen so many fights in her life. Reading, writing and 'rithmetic are important, but so are social skills, like talking about a problem rather than punching. They need soft skills.
I guess the teaching profession won't be extinct any time soon, if ever. Before the students arrived for the first day of school one year, our principal chose to show us Willard Daggett's "Perfect Storm," which talks about mega trends that will affect everyone deeply.
An American goes in for a medical scan and gets the results a few days later. What happened was that the people who scanned it email it to where doctors make less money and have the scan read there, then email back the results. So, nice medical degree you have there but even radiologists can lose work to outsourcing.
The globalization of the modern workforce creates situations where one must compete with the world for an opportunity. On top of that, jobs like teacher are not jobs for which a HS diploma suffices, but even with those hindrances, workers with these skills still stand a have chance of doing 'ok' than someone without. It goes back to the fact that a college education by itself isn't enough anymore (and not having a college education is even worse than not enough).
Teaching won't go extinct, but it isn't a good job anymore either. In many places, the pay and benefits aren't enough to support a family on, and around here many teachers either have to work side gigs to make ends meet or become part of a dual-income household (via roommates or significant other). It's a profession that's suffering from a talent drain because the best candidates can land much better opportunities than teaching. Shaw's line of "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" has taken on a new meaning.
There's a bit of real-life Hunger Games going on. The tech and finance hub cities are booming, while the rest of the country slowly withers and rots. Despite the negative imagery of homelessness and theft you see on the news for those tech cities, behind that negative veneer are cities bursting with millionaires vying for real estate against other millionaires.
Maybe this is part of why Influencer is becoming such a popular career choice for young people. For many of them, selling themselves on social media may be the best (or only) possible path to success.
...The tech and finance hub cities are booming, while the rest of the country slowly withers and rots. Despite the negative imagery of homelessness and theft you see on the news for those tech cities, behind that negative veneer are cities bursting with millionaires vying for real estate against other millionaires.
Having lived in both a withering place and a tech hub city, I can report much truth in your assessment. The hub-city goes something like this: about 40% underclass, 40% modestly but decently getting by, and about 20% flush with wealth. In a city of notionally 5 million people, that makes for one million who are doing very well... it's a far broader group than the much-maligned 1%. This also means that there's no shortage of cash-rich people hungry to snap-up >$1M houses, even in a time of high interest rates.
Nevertheless, even this much-vaunted upper 20% feels an instability and a vulnerability. Competition is fierce, and it's easy to make a blunder that knocks one out of such group. This is one reason why even the comfortably affluent are open to causes or policies that might be traditionally associated with "the left".
Quote:
Originally Posted by id77
.Maybe this is part of why Influencer is becoming such a popular career choice for young people. For many of them, selling themselves on social media may be the best (or only) possible path to success.
Maybe. But another reason is the plucky American desire to self-promote,... to rise not as a steadfast and dedicated employee, but as a flamboyantly creative person who makes his one rules.
We have a collision of mixing of two tendencies. One is a Puritanical veneration of work and of dedication to one's craft. Another is independence and disdain for institutional shackles. These tendencies converge in the idea of having one's own business.
Today, there is something unappealing about the traditional business that makes stuff and sells it at a storefront. Instead the aim is for something intangible and scalable, the quintessential example being software. You write some code, and thenceforth sell it by subscription. Selling 100,000 copies or 1 copy is the same footprint.. thus "scalability". U-tube is the ultimate scalability, as it takes the same effort to make a video that's seen by one person, and that seen by 1 billion.
There is also a belief, that real money is made not via the design and building of genuine products, but by fluff, the middleman's function, airy and evanescent things. Wall Street makes money just by moving money around. Likewise so many other white-collar professions. Hard work is venerated in the Puritan ethic, but hard work by itself isn't lucrative. To really make it lucrative, it has to be fluffy and intangible. Making a video or promoting products as a reviewer, is the intangible and lucrative side, to the actual manufacturing of said products. Everyone wants to be the middleman, the spokesman, the mover of money.. and not the guy in the boiler-room shoveling coal.
Having lived in both a withering place and a tech hub city, I can report much truth in your assessment. The hub-city goes something like this: about 40% underclass, 40% modestly but decently getting by, and about 20% flush with wealth. In a city of notionally 5 million people, that makes for one million who are doing very well... it's a far broader group than the much-maligned 1%. This also means that there's no shortage of cash-rich people hungry to snap-up >$1M houses, even in a time of high interest rates.
Nevertheless, even this much-vaunted upper 20% feels an instability and a vulnerability. Competition is fierce, and it's easy to make a blunder that knocks one out of such group. This is one reason why even the comfortably affluent are open to causes or policies that might be traditionally associated with "the left".
Maybe. But another reason is the plucky American desire to self-promote,... to rise not as a steadfast and dedicated employee, but as a flamboyantly creative person who makes his one rules.
We have a collision of mixing of two tendencies. One is a Puritanical veneration of work and of dedication to one's craft. Another is independence and disdain for institutional shackles. These tendencies converge in the idea of having one's own business.
Today, there is something unappealing about the traditional business that makes stuff and sells it at a storefront. Instead the aim is for something intangible and scalable, the quintessential example being software. You write some code, and thenceforth sell it by subscription. Selling 100,000 copies or 1 copy is the same footprint.. thus "scalability". U-tube is the ultimate scalability, as it takes the same effort to make a video that's seen by one person, and that seen by 1 billion.
There is also a belief, that real money is made not via the design and building of genuine products, but by fluff, the middleman's function, airy and evanescent things. Wall Street makes money just by moving money around. Likewise so many other white-collar professions. Hard work is venerated in the Puritan ethic, but hard work by itself isn't lucrative. To really make it lucrative, it has to be fluffy and intangible. Making a video or promoting products as a reviewer, is the intangible and lucrative side, to the actual manufacturing of said products. Everyone wants to be the middleman, the spokesman, the mover of money.. and not the guy in the boiler-room shoveling coal.
20% is all that's needed (a little less, even) as real estate isn't plentiful in those cities, particularly in the good locations. It's enough to gentrify an area and push out the middle class, who in turn push out lower-middle class in the next-best-available neighborhoods, and so on. The more there are in the top gentrifying bracket, the further the pushing extends.
I think politically another big reason that the wealthy non-business-owner class (tech workers, medical, finance, etc) tends to lean left is that those groups also tend to be highly-educated (something that itself tends to pull people left) and those groups see government assistance as a charity that can be controlled by the public. Among my social circle, there is no confidence in private business to ever do the right thing, nor should it as its purpose on this world is to make money for its shareholders. Even most privately-run charities scalp much of their donations as administrative overhead, though some are much worse than others.
Indeed, there's working hard and there's working smart in today's world. Hard aka "honest" work holds little value beyond a virtue signal, usually one chest-thumped by those who do such work and are expecting (but not getting) more respect in society.
The globalization of the modern workforce creates situations where one must compete with the world for an opportunity. On top of that, jobs like teacher are not jobs for which a HS diploma suffices, but even with those hindrances, workers with these skills still stand a have chance of doing 'ok' than someone without. It goes back to the fact that a college education by itself isn't enough anymore (and not having a college education is even worse than not enough).
Teaching won't go extinct, but it isn't a good job anymore either. In many places, the pay and benefits aren't enough to support a family on, and around here many teachers either have to work side gigs to make ends meet or become part of a dual-income household (via roommates or significant other). It's a profession that's suffering from a talent drain because the best candidates can land much better opportunities than teaching. Shaw's line of "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" has taken on a new meaning.
There's a bit of real-life Hunger Games going on. The tech and finance hub cities are booming, while the rest of the country slowly withers and rots. Despite the negative imagery of homelessness and theft you see on the news for those tech cities, behind that negative veneer are cities bursting with millionaires vying for real estate against other millionaires.
Maybe this is part of why Influencer is becoming such a popular career choice for young people. For many of them, selling themselves on social media may be the best (or only) possible path to success.
The end of my career was much better than the first part, financially, though it varied according to supply and demand. We hit a teacher shortage some time ago and my employer was very helpful, "Anything we can do for you?" Later, it looked like we might need to have budget cut and my employer was very "Do I really need you?" Then COVID hit and the employer was "Hang in there! You're a hero!" I hear now they're hard up for bus drivers so I'm sure they'll be very pleasant to them...until they don't need to be.
As for "Those who can," I would reply that I known people who "can/do" who can't teach. They may know their subject matter well but not have a clue how to present the information or form a connection with a student or manage a class etc. The state allowed people with at least a bachelor's to teach, and the agreement was that said teacher would get a crash course in lesson planning etc. as well as taking evening classes to get their teaching credential. After some years they would get all their coursework in and it would be all good.
One woman, who had been a TV reporter, came to teach journalism. Her husband was a coach. He told her to lay down the law on the first day, show the kids she wasn't going to take any guff. She did. The kids bucked, showing her that they would not take that treatment. They drove her out; she quit in her first month.
I really admire grade school teachers. Knowing how to write the alphabet or work with numbers or tie a pair of shoes is knowledge adults have, but getting a child to learn it is another matter.
Updating / adding now that I've a copy of Deaths of Despair obtained from the local library. Let me focus on just the topic of suicide as just one type of Deaths of Despair.
At page 100 it talks about a "suicide belt" in the USA, that runs along the Rocky Mountains from AZ to AK.
The top six suicide states are found here: NM, UT, ID, WY, MT and AK. What's notable about these states is the very low population density. Guns, which makes suicide quick and easy, are also prevalent in rural areas. Madison County, MT has 2.1 people per square mile. Low density areas have few people, fraternal groups, union halls, churches and health providers where people could find the sort of mutual support that leads to a sense of well-being. Being alone, feeling abandoned, lacking hope, lacking gainful employment opportunities in sparsely populated areas and with ready access to alcohol and guns is deadly.
The six states with the lowest suicide rates are: NY, NJ, MA, MD, CA, and CT. What's notable about these states is the very high population density. Mercer County, NJ has 1,632 people per square mile. High density areas have millions of people, plentiful jobs, fraternal groups, union halls, churches, and entertainments where people do find the social interactions that lead to a sense of well-being. Dense areas also have a foundational infrastructure of medical, psychological, social, educational and religious institutions to support actual well-being.
I would add from observation that people in rural areas are subject to daily bombardment from right wing talk radio and far right networks (Fox, Salem, Sinclair, etc) that they are under attack from unchecked, unstoppable massive waves of diseased immigrants pouring over the borders, etc, among other disasters aimed at them by the left. They're told the government is coming for their guns, that their tax dollars are going to undeserving masses of "other" people in hellhole cities run by the other party. This constant drumbeat of lies is enough to give weaker minds a sense of doom, that all is lost, so they self-medicate with alcohol and drugs to the point their despair can lead to suicide. The book notes that these suicides among non-college Whites are 4 times higher than for college-educated Whites, or Black people who've been subjected to these pressures for generations, especially during the AIDS and Crack Cocaine epidemics of the 1980s.
As I go through the book I'll probably find more key data on which to comment.
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Updating / adding now that I've a copy of Deaths of Despair obtained from the local library. Let me focus on just the topic of suicide as just one type of Deaths of Despair.
At page 100 it talks about a "suicide belt" in the USA, that runs along the Rocky Mountains from AZ to AK.
The top six suicide states are found here: NM, UT, ID, WY, MT and AK. What's notable about these states is the very low population density. Guns, which makes suicide quick and easy, are also prevalent in rural areas. Madison County, MT has 2.1 people per square mile. Low density areas have few people, fraternal groups, union halls, churches and health providers where people could find the sort of mutual support that leads to a sense of well-being. Being alone, feeling abandoned, lacking hope, lacking gainful employment opportunities in sparsely populated areas and with ready access to alcohol and guns is deadly.
The six states with the lowest suicide rates are: NY, NJ, MA, MD, CA, and CT. What's notable about these states is the very high population density. Mercer County, NJ has 1,632 people per square mile. High density areas have millions of people, plentiful jobs, fraternal groups, union halls, churches, and entertainments where people do find the social interactions that lead to a sense of well-being. Dense areas also have a foundational infrastructure of medical, psychological, social, educational and religious institutions to support actual well-being.
I would add from observation that people in rural areas are subject to daily bombardment from right wing talk radio and far right networks (Fox, Salem, Sinclair, etc) that they are under attack from unchecked, unstoppable massive waves of diseased immigrants pouring over the borders, etc, among other disasters aimed at them by the left. They're told the government is coming for their guns, that their tax dollars are going to undeserving masses of "other" people in hellhole cities run by the other party. This constant drumbeat of lies is enough to give weaker minds a sense of doom, that all is lost, so they self-medicate with alcohol and drugs to the point their despair can lead to suicide. The book notes that these suicides among non-college Whites are 4 times higher than for college-educated Whites, or Black people who've been subjected to these pressures for generations, especially during the AIDS and Crack Cocaine epidemics of the 1980s.
As I go through the book I'll probably find more key data on which to comment.
Interesting to me is that the "suicide belt" states are all desirable or at least acceptable places for me to live, but the six states with the lowest rates are all utterly unacceptable to me as a place to live. Guns are indeed a big part of my lifestyle, and that of my peers - but I would be very surprised if any of my peers killed themselves, and if they did I would think they had been diagnosed with aggressive cancer or some such, and figured they had nothing left to look forward to in life but pain and misery. Of course to me guns have long been just another tool around the ranch here, and like my tractor, or chain saw, you can get hurt if you mishandle them.
My peer group is a bunch of nuclear engineers, so not a weak mind in the lot.
I used to listen to Rush, and he was far from depressing.
Maybe this is partly driven by me being (mostly) an introvert, at least around the general population. Anyone who saw me at a technical conference of some sort would think I am quite extroverted, and I am around interesting people, particularly if they are interested in things I'm also interested in.
@Mike: Does the book, in its suicide statistics, state whether those people living within the "suicide belt" of the U.S. were born in that region, or migrated to that region from somewhere else? I ask because I'm curious as to whether depression caused by unfulfilled expectations, or even culture shock, upon moving to a new region might be a contributing factor to these suicides? Plus, I think that there has always been a movement of the U.S. population towards the more open areas of the Mid-West and West (though I could be wrong).
@M3 Mitch: If you don't mind saying, have you lived where you are now all of your life?
This may be a long shot, but I wonder whether we are naturally predisposed to live most happily within the environments into which we were born and raised. My personal experience is that I have traveled throughout the U.S. as well as the U.K. and, while there are some things I've discovered that I like while away from home, I'm always very glad and comforted to return home again.
Mitch, thanks for the reply. Nuclear engineers have outstanding educations and the book shows that few well-educated people are susceptible to what the authors call Deaths of Despair (DD). The suicide belt is indeed an area of tremendous beauty; we lived in Colorado Springs for 11 years and traveled much of CO and nearby states. But you can't eat that scenery, can't take it to the bank (unless you own a hotel there), without a well-paying job it can be very unforgiving, and it can be a day's drive to get specialized medical care in Denver, Salt Lake City, Spokane, etc.
There are plenty of strong people out in rural areas, with or without guns, but some of those out there are susceptible. Along those lines one stereotype that comes to mind are those who seek refuge from big cities and the racial mix of such places; Idaho being a case in point. Idaho is well known as a place with plenty of neo-nazi types / white supremacists and similar mindsets. I tried listening to Rush back in the 1990s and rejected his spin on things; he'd take an iota of truth and spin it up into something far more than it was, and I felt his aim was to incite anger and rage, like the smoke blowing loudmouth on infowars.
When I got married in 1974 we chose her M.D. as our doctor. He smoked heavily and became terminal with lung cancer in the 1980s. Since he knew what was coming he committed suicide by firearm, indeed a DD. I don't blame him one bit for that, nor would I fault anyone else for doing that. I know it's an option for me as I won't let myself rot for months in a nursing home; I've seen that way of dying and won't stand for it. But now we have ten states with Death With Dignity (DWD) laws that allow such terminal patients to legally get the pills from their doctor to take them out gently and gracefully, on their own terms, before the stupefying pain and suffering that terminal diseases so often bring. I've seen some of my older generation pass away under such awful conditions, all of which makes me a fan of DWD; those who want more info on DWD may search this site using the term DWD.
But it's many of the white working class high school graduates (or HS dropouts) who are suffering the DDs. As they fall further down the economic chain and/or have no economic choice but to move further out from big expensive cities, they end up in desolate rural areas which have few resources for them and eventually that poverty of place takes its toll on their mindsets, they are susceptible to alcohol and/or opioids for relief, and eventually we see another DD event.
Rachel, so far the book doesn't say the birth origins of the victims of DDs. A lot of those in rural areas are native to such areas, hate to leave it, are poorly educated in low-tax rural school systems, and have little opportunity to escape. There's a country music song that describes this 'syndrome' if we can call it that: "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive." Harlan is a county in KY that was/is noted for coal mining and has all the ills of low education, obesity, diabetes, opioids and alcohol that much of Appalachia is noted for. The rural kids who manage to get a decent education almost all migrate TO the big cities for the job opportunities and support infrastructures that are found there -- and it's been going this way for 150 years now since farm machinery allowed farm kids to get off the farm and head to factory jobs in big cities.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 11-10-2022 at 12:13 PM..
Interesting to me is that the "suicide belt" states are all desirable or at least acceptable places for me to live, but the six states with the lowest rates are all utterly unacceptable to me as a place to live. Guns are indeed a big part of my lifestyle, and that of my peers - but I would be very surprised if any of my peers killed themselves, and if they did I would think they had been diagnosed with aggressive cancer or some such, and figured they had nothing left to look forward to in life but pain and misery. Of course to me guns have long been just another tool around the ranch here, and like my tractor, or chain saw, you can get hurt if you mishandle them.
My peer group is a bunch of nuclear engineers, so not a weak mind in the lot.
I used to listen to Rush, and he was far from depressing.
Maybe this is partly driven by me being (mostly) an introvert, at least around the general population. Anyone who saw me at a technical conference of some sort would think I am quite extroverted, and I am around interesting people, particularly if they are interested in things I'm also interested in.
Putting politics aside, the factors I see driving up the rate in rural states (and in particular the "suicide belt" states) are:
- In small towns and rural areas, there's a lot more of an "everyone knows everyone" attitude, whereas in an urban environment it's actually easier to maintain your privacy, as counterintuitive as it sounds. Everyone in a small town is going to know about that socially unacceptable mistake you made, whereas in a city it's easier to start over around people who don't know you. I can see this driving some into depression where they've become a pariah in their rural community.
- Opportunities are fewer and far between in rural America. It's easy to get trapped into a single industry or job choice with little upside when you live in a place where that one job you're already doing (and hating) is the only option.
Add these to the factors Mike discussed in his post and it seems logical that rural areas are more prone to mental health and depression risks that can and do lead to increased suicide rates.
@Mike: Does the book, in its suicide statistics, state whether those people living within the "suicide belt" of the U.S. were born in that region, or migrated to that region from somewhere else? I ask because I'm curious as to whether depression caused by unfulfilled expectations, or even culture shock, upon moving to a new region might be a contributing factor to these suicides? Plus, I think that there has always been a movement of the U.S. population towards the more open areas of the Mid-West and West (though I could be wrong).
@M3 Mitch: If you don't mind saying, have you lived where you are now all of your life?
This may be a long shot, but I wonder whether we are naturally predisposed to live most happily within the environments into which we were born and raised. My personal experience is that I have traveled throughout the U.S. as well as the U.K. and, while there are some things I've discovered that I like while away from home, I'm always very glad and comforted to return home again.
Hi Rachel,
No, I was "born a poor black child" near Atlanta, GA. (OK I am actually white but using a line from "The Jerk"). But I grew up in the heat and humidity, and frequent heavy rain near Atlanta. As soon as I realized the scenery in cowboy movies was not just a set, it was a real place, the "fuse was lit" so to speak. I never cared for most of the people there in the Bible Belt. So I finished college and was out of there.
I got a job in eastern Idaho, near Idaho Falls, and "discovered" the Intermountain West. I moved to Colorado for another job. Eventually I ended up here near the Tri-Cities in eastern Washington State.
So, for me at least, the area where I was born and raised is not at all where I'm happiest. I like the dry air, the big skies, the pasture full of cattle around my house here. I like the people out here, they make up for in quality what they lack in quantity. Not everybody here lives by the Code of the West, but I certainly try and I'm not alone in that.
I have visited most of those states I mentioned as utterly unsuitable as a place for me to live. Most are in the Northeast, with an unacceptable wet snowy winter, excessive taxation, and no respect for the Second Amendment. I have been to Cali more than a few times, the weather is better but it has the same Nanny State problems as the Northeast. One time I was part of a team escorting some Russian nuclear scientists and engineers on a visit to NYC. That was fun, I enjoyed it, but there is no way I could live there on a continuing basis.
So, I have been around and my preferences are based largely on first-hand experience.
-Mitch
But, anyway, I was not born here, but I got here as soon as I could.
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