Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for September 21, 2014

He’ll go to college, and then he’ll still be slinging lattes at 35 because when everybody is paying student loans, coffee dates are about all you can afford.

Pump gas? OK, in New Jersey and Oregon……

Having a job that requires you to wear a name tag into your fifties is nothing to be proud of.

Good honest work doesn’t make anyone a loser.

In today’s job market you need an associate degree in computer science just to adapt.

Lucy and Alix do have it right for him. But someone has to serve all those latties.

I don’t think it is the job in question. It is the attitude behind his lack of motivation that is the problem.

An education doesn’t just happen in college and as someone else pointed out, college isn’t for everyone. I work with people who have everything from a HS diploma or GED to a PhD. They all contribute and some of the people without advanced degrees can do more than the super-specialized PhDs and engineers.

I really would love to see him come into his own. Maybe he meets a teacher who inspires him to see things differently and pursue something different. Maybe a shop teacher inspires him to be a master carpenter. Maybe a new Math teacher makes him suddenly love numbers. Maybe an encounter with some “bad boy” kids he meets makes him realize that might not be the best way to go for him. Maybe he gets a job outside of school and discovers that pumping gas isn’t all it is cracked up to be, or that he is really good at something unusual. Maybe the adults have a lesson to learn about pushing him into college when there are other avenues, like carpentry, plumbing, hvac, etc.

Right on!!!!

I have a Bachelor and Masters degree in Music Education. Plans were made for me (by the parents funding my education) to be a teacher, whereas I really wanted to be a music librarian. I also had an after-work job at a record store where my specialty was the classical and jazz departments.Hated every minute of teaching and at the end of the school day really looked forward to the record store where I could really use what I learned in college: I had a following of music-lovers who appreciated my knowledge and suggestions, and rarely steered them wrong. Happiness is not always found with a big paycheck and bunch of letters after your name.

Oh boy.

I know of a lady who studied psychology. She got her bachelor’s, then went on to study for her master’s, and then got sidetracked into public radio. She now has a very successful radio program, has won many accolades, and has just published a book about the history of Celtic folk music. Her name is Fiona Ritchie. You can Google or Bing her, or check her website at thistleradio.com.

The point?You don’t know what’s going to happen, or how things are going to turn out.

I was disappointed when my youngest daughter didn’t want to go to college. She got a job as a grocery store cashier at age 17, for minimum wage. She said she was going to be the best employee they ever had.

She was promoted to customer service/checkout supervisor while she was still 17. She worked there almost two years. After a year, she started submitting resumes and applications to other jobs. Last week she started a job as a credit union teller, starting at $12 an hour, with lots of room for advancement. She doesn’t have to work holidays. She is 19 and has her own apartment (she has roommates but the apartment is in her name) and car.

So it is possible to do well without college, if you work hard and don’t give up.

Out City Hall recently introduced a system to prevent unwanted people from getting beyond the main floor. This involves every employee, including the Mayor, wearing an ID tag with a magnetic barcode on it. The City Manager makes over $300 000 annually, and wears one of those tags too, or he doesn’t get up to his office.

I love reading Stone Soup. Eliot is usually spot on. But this, I’m afraid, is elitist. Every job, and every person in it, makes our society work. Think theatre—-there are no small roles. I was sorry to see this.

If literally no one wants to sling lattes then we have 0 people both slinging lattes and happy. There’s nothing wrong with wanting things in life other than a high education and well paying job. After my generation’s huge leap at high paying jobs and education, I’m seeing a lot of teens in this generation realizing that it’s not worth the time if they’re happy with less.

It doesn’t help that College and House ownership prices are two of the only three things that have price growth outracing the economy’s growth to a ridiculous degree.

A union drywall hanger makes about $45/nour. That’s just slightly under what I made as a senior computer tech with 30 years experience working in a high security Intelligence environment.

You do not need college to be a success, you do need drive and ambition and some skill in something people will pay you well to do.