Added: Feb 2, 2012
From: ClarkEDU
Duration: 61:3
On January 24, for the winter 2012 installment of Clark's Faculty Speaker Series, Professor Mike Godson spoke on new innovations in automobile technology, focusing particularly on safety improvements. He also spoke forcefully about the value of training new generations in mechanical and technical skills. Unfortunately, the camera cut off before the end of Prof. Godson's speech. We're publishing it here, beginning with his excerpt from Matthew Crawford's "Shop Class as Soulcraft": "A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic credentials is view as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates controlled by prestigious institutions. Further, there is wide use of drugs to medicate boys, especially, against their natural tendency toward action, the better to 'keep things on track.' I taught briefly in a public high school and would have loved to have set up a Ritalin fogger in my classroom. It is a rare person, male or female, who is naturally inclined to sit still for 17 years in school, and then indefinitely at work. "The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid. This is not my experience. I have a small business as a motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Virginia, which I started in 2002. I work on Japanese and European motorcycles, mostly older bikes with some 'vintage' cachet that makes people willing to spend money on them. I have found the satisfactions of the work to be very much bound up with the intellectual challenges it presents. And yet my decision to go into this line of work is a choice that seems to perplex many people." Let me tell you folks, Crawford's choice makes perfect sense to me! In conclusion, I'm proud to represent the side of education that puts people to work. Providing pathways into the economy is an important side of our mission at Clark, perhaps even the most important.
Channel: Education
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