tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post112917838063503281..comments2023-10-21T05:31:04.705-05:00Comments on Merle Widmer's PEORIA WATCH: Pam Adam's Sunday Column in the Journal StarMerle Widmerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788275198834985986noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129590965756282022005-10-17T18:16:00.000-05:002005-10-17T18:16:00.000-05:00Hi Angela,This community needs your help and all t...Hi Angela,<BR/><BR/>This community needs your help and all the help we can get to push for more "skills" training from building a garage to raising a kid or keeping a family togheter or prepare for any job of any kind to get started. Unskilled workers can learn from any job they can get and prepare to move up the income ladder!!<BR/><BR/>ThanksMerle Widmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04267875223386924271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129396688745039152005-10-15T12:18:00.000-05:002005-10-15T12:18:00.000-05:00Meanwhile... everyone whines while jobs are outsou...Meanwhile... everyone whines while jobs are outsourced to foriegn lands. I'm sure computer programmer salaries are cheaper in India, but I'm starting to wonder if there might be a supply and demand problem occurring in this country. Fewer and fewer people know how to build let alone fix anything in this country.<BR/><BR/>FYI or any high schooler student out there wanting to make the big money. I just got an estimate to build a garage and re-do my driveway... $36,000. We would try to do it ourselves but my attorney hubby and I are completely clueless...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129325786907655152005-10-14T16:36:00.000-05:002005-10-14T16:36:00.000-05:00Thanks, Cal.All the current Dist #150 board member...Thanks, Cal.<BR/><BR/>All the current Dist #150 board members appear to support more VO-TECH. The architect planning the new school buildings say plans are to have VO-TECH opportunies in each new school; new schools that could be years off as I'm not sure many in the community think new schools are the answer to our problems, and this year they say they have added shop at Manual. But on my last visit to Manual, they had a shop Academy for several years with relative poor attendance. The guy running the program main interest was to get out of this community and join his wife who had a good job in Bloomington. His staff appeared to be unenergetic and complaining. Hard to have success under those conditions. Plus the principal was weak but he has now been promoted to administration. <BR/><BR/>A great deal of the problem lies with not enough counselors and counselors counseling kids for college. <BR/>I feel like a broken record saying that's OK but why aren't we teaching life skills to all? If a kid isn't headed for college does he think he will be a celebrity? Of course he or she does; they get misled by watching TV especially MTV and too many TV sports. Odds are only about one out of every 100,00 will become a celebrity without a college education or the development of certain skills thru some type of formal training. Better to learn some skills to allow the kid to hold a job!!<BR/><BR/>I took mechanical drawing in high school. I didn't pursue that field but what I learned helped me in raising a family and holding a job.<BR/><BR/>The union is probably strong enough here to keep retirees from business without a teaching certificate from teaching VO-TECH classes.Merle Widmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04267875223386924271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129319822429712452005-10-14T14:57:00.000-05:002005-10-14T14:57:00.000-05:00My father called the meeting that led to the forma...My father called the meeting that led to the formation of McHenry County College. As a member of the first board, he fought to make the new community college vocational training friendly. It ended up like a typical junior college...preparing people to go onto a four year school. <BR/><BR/>What a wasted opportunity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129311616858193452005-10-14T12:40:00.000-05:002005-10-14T12:40:00.000-05:00It's snobbery if you ask me. In this day and age ...It's snobbery if you ask me. In this day and age the belief a liberal college education is somehow loftier than vocational education is idiotic. Technology is ever advancing. Those who understand it, build it, and fix it are already making more money than the lawyers.<BR/><BR/>The racist\snob in this case is Pam Adamspollypeoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13270746480810324603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129239679056948642005-10-13T16:41:00.000-05:002005-10-13T16:41:00.000-05:00To the first anonymous, please do not use my blog ...To the first anonymous, please do not use my blog site as free advertisisng for your company.<BR/><BR/>Thak You.<BR/><BR/>To the 2nd anonymous, thank you, we are in agreement. Peoria School Counselors, of which there are too few, counsel kids going on to higher education and the problems kids are having in their young lives. Not enough time is left to counsel kids on alternate directions rather than the push toward more costly eduction only for the kid to find out at some late date, the now adult has to spend more money to go to a Junior College or Vocational Schoolto prepare for the workplace.<BR/><BR/>For years, I have challenged this community but the elite have mostly held the college line. Adopt-A-Schools and Acadamies reach less than 500 kids in the entire Dist. #150 system. Ask Carol Leach who visits all schools in the area and says the total is less than 1000.<BR/><BR/>Too bad and now it is late in the game if you have been reading about Workforce Development plea for more semi-skilled and skilled workers.Merle Widmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04267875223386924271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671777.post-1129191854491784722005-10-13T03:24:00.000-05:002005-10-13T03:24:00.000-05:00Amen! I didn't know it at the time, but the worst...Amen! I didn't know it at the time, but the worst day of my life was probably when I passed the bar exam. As a kid, I was constantly told that education, college, graduate school were imperative to be successful, happy and independent. Education is imperative, but what TYPE of education should be catered to the individual. I think I would have been a happier person earlier in life if I had pursued a career that used my natural skills in carpentary instead of suppressing them to pursue law.<BR/><BR/>Pam Adams needs to learn respect for those of us who work with our hands and actually make something. We have enough cranky, unhappy people crammed into cubicles, breathing re-circulated air forty hours or more a week, shuffling paper.<BR/><BR/>It isn't about race. It is about encouraging people to pay attention to their God given talents and making the best use of them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com