The Emerald Rose

It’s just another place with a different set of problems,….TRUST ME!!

The Educational system, while vastly improved from the 80’s , is still light years behind New England, where I grew up. I’m not “dissing the State or their efforts to  grow and be a “world class” educational state.

While various Colleges and Universities are growing, they need more fuel! Not necessarily “fuel” in terms of money and campuses, but fuel in terms of a system of education below the college level to SUPPLY the college system with candidates  for HIGHER education!

Florida was instrumental in the early 60’s in creating the nations “Junior Collegees System”. It helped many, many young people be able to get the “Basics” of a College Education foundation completed at a REASONABLE cost. By then they had decided if they were indeed serious about a full Baccularette degree program, and were sufficiently ready to research the best college to seek out, for the program , and specialty they wanted to pursue. It was a serious step in the development of career paths for those young people.

At the same time the national educational “powers that be” decided that EVERYONE deserved/needed, ad warranted a four year full college degree, and could earn more accordingly. More “majors” were created, more specialized curriculums were established, more costs for more staff, , infrastructure, and all of that nonsense.

But while all that was happening “someone”, decided we really didn’t need trade schools, occupational specialty training schools, etc. Flash forward twenty years, and disaster already started to begin. Trade Schools had gone the way of the T-REX, labor unions, (the “post graduate schools”) of the trades, were shrinking , anyone able to walk to. Home Depot, or a Loews, could buy a hammer and a belt “hammer holster” and print a cheap business card and call themselves a “master carpenter”

Being a “tradesman” became a slur, an insult, and the subject of being a “educationally challenged” person. THERE IS HONOR IN TRADES FOLKS!!

I once knew an electrician who had at least five other guys working for him, always showed up in a dirty ripped old tee shirt, in a beat up old pick up truck that literally just “chugged along” with a trail of black exhaust behind it, BUT he was a super electrician , and I would never hire anyone else for my companies needs, and he was fair and reasonably priced as well!  After a  Few years I was highered away by another firm about fifty miles away as a communications consultant, and mentioned it to my electrician as the company had not yet found anyone to replace me, with three weeks remaining. The electrician asked if he could take me out to lunch as a “thank you”for working with him and his firm and giving them the work we had, I said sure,  and we set Friday at 11:30 and he said he’d pick me up. That Friday he showed up in a brand new Cadillac El Dorado Convertible, in his “Sunday go to meeting clothes’, took me out to the biggest and most expensive Steak house in the area, and we “dined”. As we drove back to my office we chatted and I was feeling guilty, as he was a nice humble but good tradesman and had always been there when I needed him. I mentioned it to him and offered to cough up a little money for lunch to make it fair. He pulled over and stopped and turned to me and said, “You aren’t paying anything for dinner, you already paid for this car, my clothes and helped me pay my troops and expand my business at least 500 % in the last 5 years,….this is MY chance to say a real “thank you” to you for your support, your prompt payments to us, and the way you do business,….That’s all I want to hear on the matter!” He went on to tell me that if he had new trucks, brand new fancy uniforms and drove over to check jobs in a Cadillac El Dorado Convertible, it would create a situation where I would think I was being overcharged, and.start looking for a replacement for him. “We had a business relationship at fair labor prices for a fair and good job, and we did our end and you did yours, we all.won!!”

As a Vietnam Nam era Navy Veteran, I went to colleges in Massachusetts for four or five years and then transferred to Salem State College after I had taken every course the Junior College had but stenography, (in retrospect I kind of wish I had, there are virtually no qualified stenographers and not enough court reporters today!). With an Associates Degree in Business, and another about 50 other Credits in History, ( my personal love) I’m well over the requirement to earn a Bachelors degree, and about 3 courses short of a Masters Degree in History,…..but to spend my own money,, at 72 years old, and complete the programs will still cost me over $20,000 because every college, university, real or “on-line” wants “the green” for the Letters. The system sucks!!! I get a Certificate for my wall, but that’s it,….not a real job! Who wants a “Senior Citizen” for a job as a History Instructor/teacher?

Colleges today are strictly about the dollar,…..and that’s flat out WRONG! More really STUPID degree programs and less learning, just book bills, on line bullshit courses, no “REAL” instructors except within the 48 hour window they have to reply to your e-mail! That is all wrong!!!

The SEC may be the best College Football division , short of the NFL, but I’d love to see a study of all of their grads, 15 years after graduation, and what about the rest of the non-athletic graduates? Why is it we have more land available in Florida, for business, technical and “Silicon Valley” firms at only 15-20% of the cost of California land, taxes, etc., better year round weather, a fantastic infrastructure of Highways, airports,  arguably the best recreational, boating and “other” facilities, yet not a single “Hi-Tech” firm other than the now decimated and sequestered ” husks” of military contractors here, particularly the Northwest Florida area from Pensacola to the State Capital Tallahassee?

We need an education overhaul, a real estate overhaul, a healthcare overhaul, and one hell of a recruiting effort to correct this situation! And most importantly an “ATTITUDE Adjustment” Why is that  not happening? The probability is that it will, without MAJOR EFFORT is slim to none, being a “happy” little sleepy beach community is a problem , NOT  seen an asset here.

In the words of Rod Serling, “Picture if you will,….” a high Tech firm, with 2,000 employees coming here!” Low price Home ownership, no State Income Tax, Gorgeous  Sugar Sand beaches, Superb weather, great shopping, ……but a mediocre Education system, and no real desire by the State to grow it to a “nationally credible” competitive harbor for growth?

Lots of  questions, few answers, and no hope. We NEED more than Spring Breakers, Gray haired retires, and “Theme Park” refugees living, working, and BEING Floridians!

Really interested in your take on this. Mine “in twenty-five words or less”?

We are NOT cultivating a new working class who does not flee to Silicon Valley , and give up all the “Benefits” of living in Florida! (24 Words)

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I’ve worm “long pants” two days in the last 365,…..how hard is that, ….and I’m not a surfer!