🚀 go-pugleaf

I teach.  I want all of my students to become critical thinkers, to be
creative in the fields they pursue and the lives they lead outside of their
work.  But there's been something that's bothered me about this "Branding
Kids" thread, and the last message from MIT (forgive me; I can't see the
message I'm responding to, but I remember it was an athena address) crystal-
lized it for me.

Is there something inherently _wrong_ about being a truck driver?  Must we
be disappointed in someone who _wants_ to be a beautician, a cook, a
mechanic?

Yes, I completely understand being distressed when someone believes that one
career or another is the "only job they could ever be suited for, so
why try...?".  Abandoned or misguided potential is a tremendous loss, to
both the person and the society which has to trundle on without their
contributions -- but it seems to me that we can brand careers ('vocations'?)
as unworthy or `below us' just as easily as we can brand children.

Come to think of it, I have an an example of this in my own family.  I'm
finishing my PhD.  I've always loved academics (give or take some horrible
moments in my mathematics education, but I'm about ready to repair that
damage).  My brother has managed with his academics, but his goal was never
a college career, it was to be a police officer (local or state trooper).
My parents wanted him to go to college (particularly my mother, who was much
more open than my father about saying that "Erik, you could be so much
_more_ than just a police officer!").  The local police officers tried
steering him away from the idea, telling him he could really do a lot
better than a career in law enforcement.  What's going on here?

Someone has to drive the trucks and repair the wiring which makes our
pleasant academic discussions possible.  I know that this bboard is for
discussions of science and education, but there are sociological aspects
 to how and why people become 'educated' --- would it be easier to convince
the ordinary majority of citizens to support educational initiatives to
improve education in the sciences if we demonstrated that we respected who
they are and what they do with their lives?

Lili Fox Velez
Rhetorician in Residence                 "Rhet in the Blue Linen Labcoat"
Department of Biological Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University