Cloyde Vandenburg
English 101
Carrie Hall
09/23/18
Second draft
     Whenever the words âshop classâ is brought up most people immediately think about working with wood, and heavy machinery, while others think of it as a whole as just hands on experience in the trade you’re interested in. Connecting to the real world you realize that there are more white collar occupations than blue collar occupations, with white being brain work and blue collar being hands on work. In the article âshop class as Soulcraftâ it is stated by Matthew B. Crawford that âshop class is becoming a thing of the pastâ. Knowing this brings up the question how are students going to learn the skills they learn In shop class in the real world? Which in turn brings up the question should schools re-introduce vocational skills classes to prepare students for opportunities outside of white collar professions? To answer this question first one have to to know the benefits of blue collar professions and how it can help you in the real world. To begin vocational skills help you with your communication skills, some of the trades if not most of them require on the be social and be able to communicate well with others, another way it helps you with is teamwork, not only are you required to communicate with others but you you have to work well with them, it’s not going to be all talk, being able to work well with others is essential. Hand eye coordination is another skill that can be learned in the blue collar field, many trades involve either heavy machinery of specialized tools that are used in the workplace that you are not only need to know how to operate such tools but to navigate your surroundings while at the same time focused on the job at hand personally through the trades that’s I’ve took interest in I have learned these skills. Within the white collar field the profession mostly strengths your skills that are used within that field, in other words the skills you learn in most white collar jobs aren’t used outside of that job. Crawford states in his article that âskilled labor is becoming one of the few paths to a good livingâ, financially speaking that is a a real head scratcher, what is he trying to say/ask is that can blue collar jobs earn you enough money for you to have a comfortable life, from what we know white collar occupations earn more than blue collar occupations, but only if you have all the qualifications, the more certified you are the more money you make, something that is not mention in the white collar field, yet in the blue collar field of you’re able to operate a certain kind of machinery you got the job, but mean you get paid as much, I know this due personal experiences and past mentors. With That being said, why are white collar professions preferred to blue collar professions? The answer is condensed into one word âFuture-ismâ âin our harsh world we as humans leave the material reality behind and drift into an economy of pure informationâ stated by Crawford and what he means by this is that we leave a world of hard work and go into one of fantasy, where blue collar don’t exist and everything is either done for you or at a touch of a finger. In a world like this humanity would become dependent on technology, which in the long run isn’t good. Knowing this we go back to our original question should schools re-introduce vocations skills classes to prepare students for opportunities outside of white collar professions? Yea they should, why because students can the learn good communication skills, how to work well with others and special equipment at the end of it all if the student doesn’t find the trade their in as a future career they can change it for another trade that suits them, which would be easier to learn because the skills they have learned prior to the new trade can be carried over into other trades giving one an advantage in the industry. Therefore schools should bring back shop classes because it is an educator itself, being that it teaches various skills that can be used in any trade being white collar or blue collar.
