[Publib] Monday thoughts on Sunday

Mon Jul 6 12:31:49 EDT 2009

But being a farmer is no easy life.  Farmers - especially those who plan to sell their products as well as sustain their family - are at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Fire, floods, drought, pestilence, and crop diseases are only a few of MN's "gifts."

It's also a 24/7 job.  Farmers spend a lot of time in their fields, plowing, harrowing, feeding animals, fighting insects and other pests.  He might earn a "decent" salary, but if one figures out the cost of labor (his/hers), it's probably a pittance.  

I'm eligible for retirement, although I haven't plans to retire in the near future.  I couldn't do the physical labor farm work requires.  

If I had to take another job, I'd probably register with a temporary agency as a secretary (or whatever they're called these days).  I can type, use a word processor, and transcribe dictation from an electronic device.  

-----Original Message-----
>From: Sharon Foster <fostersm1 at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 6, 2009 8:29 AM
>To: Robert Balliot <rballiot at gmail.com>
>Cc: Backwage at aol.com, publib at webjunction.org
>Subject: Re: [Publib] Monday thoughts on Sunday
>
>Maybe I misunderstood the question. If those are the only three
>choices, I would probably be a carpenter. Problem is, it's a hard way
>to make a living right now, even in Fairfield County, CT. New home
>construction is cyclical in the best of times and, while there is
>repair work, I'm not sure it generates enough income to live on. For a
>recession-proof, work-with-my-hands job, I'd be a farmer. With a few
>chickens and goats, and enough land, I'd be self-sustaining.
>
>Sharon M. Foster, JD, MLS
>Librarians bring order out of chaos.
>http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 7:58 AM, Robert Balliot<rballiot at gmail.com> wrote:
>> There is no reason librarians cannot be plumbers, electricians, and
>> carpenters too.  The wealth of public
>> libraries provides the resources to learn many skill sets.  As proponents of
>> lifetime learning we should
>> embrace our inner builders and repairers.  One of my friends is a very
>> skilled writer and also worked
>> as a plumber.  Developing physical skills along with mental skills certainly
>> enhances brain function.
>>
>> In fact, I think most library directors, after managing buildings for any
>> length of time or going through a
>> building project will develop at least a cursory knowledge of architectural,
>> structural, plumbing, mechanical
>> and electrical plans.  Perhaps the most valuable skill sets will be heating
>> and air conditioning along
>> with furniture restoration and repair.  All librarians become interior
>> designers - developing ergonomic
>> processes to either complement or make up for the original configurations of
>> their architects.
>>
>>
>> R. Balliot
>> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Martha Grenzeback
>> <graymatters at windstream.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't think well-lit matters so much as air-conditioned (at least here
>>> in the Nebraska summers)...I do wash my own windows (they don't get done
>>> often, though) and do my own gardening, but I think a lot of brainwashing
>>> goes on at school. I have three daughters and would love to have a plumber,
>>> electrician, and carpenter in the family, since those are sorely needed
>>> around here, but to no avail (except for one promising boyfriend). I studied
>>> library science because I love it. At least I can direct people to plumbing
>>> guides and such.....
>>>
>>> Martha Grenzeback
>>> graymatters at windstream.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> At 03:54 PM 7/5/2009, Backwage at aol.com wrote:
>>>
>>> Recently the New York Times has offered an article about the worth of a
>>> modern-day master's degree.  The link follows--if as happens it doesn't
>>> function you can always look the piece up yourselves.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/?scp=1&sq=masters%20degree&st=cse
>>>
>>> The Times has received quite a few comments on topic.  Reading through
>>> them we find the usual themes, many of which have been worked to death by
>>> newly-minted librarians over the years:  lack of jobs, student loan burdens,
>>> terrific competition and of course, the lack of recognition by society in
>>> general.
>>>
>>> Most of these gripes ring about as true as the signs of the beggars on
>>> freeway on-ramps.   They more or less say "Will Work For Food" but the
>>> reality is somewhat at variance with this claim.  I recall years ago when
>>> there was a teacher's strike in Los Angeles, the longshore locals invited
>>> the strikers to work the docks on a temporary basis.  Very few did, and
>>> those who did evaporated pretty quickly.
>>>
>>> Here in the building trades we often get inquiries by laid-off teachers
>>> and other educated folk about apprenticeships.  They sometimes fill out
>>> applications, and they always pass the tests, but they almost never stick
>>> around, even though the starting apprentice pay meets or exceeds beginning
>>> teacher salaries, and the top pay (after only five years!) beats the heck
>>> out of what almost any teacher gets.  The hourly wage for an electrician is
>>> $35.95 and the plumber wage is almost 34 dollars, not counting the benefit
>>> packages.  Things are a bit slow right now, but anybody can apply for the
>>> apprenticeship program.  In fact, the laborers union is always hiring, and
>>> you can go to work ASAP.
>>>
>>> The reason that these folks don't is because they don't want to.  Work,
>>> that is.  Today they will use the excuse of the recession, but a year or so
>>> ago when things were going fine they just griped about something else.  Why
>>> is this so?  Well, we might look at a time when this wasn't so.
>>>
>>> The schoolteachers and librarians of my childhood mostly had other careers
>>> before getting their college degrees.  I had teachers who were previously
>>> plumbers, landscapers and carpenters.  They even went back to the trades in
>>> summer.  A librarian I knew had been a laborer; another was a tech writer in
>>> an aircraft plant.  Another packed fruit in a cannery.  These weren't
>>> summer-break jobs but what they did and would have done forever if they
>>> hadn't gotten an M.A. degree.  My own father taught school but was an
>>> aircraft mechanic before that.  By the time I did my own librarian
>>> internships I found that none of my superiors had done anything in the way
>>> of manual work at all.  Over the course of a couple of generations, the
>>> working class connections had withered away.
>>>
>>> Side note:  I worked as a clerk in a public library where none of the
>>> librarians had ever worked outside the cloister.  All of them had gone from
>>> college to college to the library.  In this same place the clerks were all
>>> working class people, most with only a bit of college done.  Talk about a
>>> culture chasm.  Sometimes I had to translate so the two sides could
>>> understand each other.  I could do this because the librarians figured I was
>>> going to be a librarian, and because the clerks were the parents of kids I'd
>>> grown up with.  I could write a book just from the conversations each side
>>> had about the other.
>>>
>>> Nowadays the educated classes look down on manual labor.  This is not to
>>> say that they don't give lip service to it, but the real measure of their
>>> feeling comes through in how they raise their own kids.  I've seen dozens of
>>> librarians and teachers who would tell you "Whatever my kid does is fine
>>> with me," but then they sit up late filling out applications to Yale so
>>> little Dingbat doesn't have to dirty his hands among the lower classes.
>>> Mind you, the trade union officials I work with are the same--they direct
>>> their own kids to college unless the kid is a very dim bulb, at which point
>>> they finance his entry into a "music school" where the kid can learn the
>>> rudiments of guitar playing until he finds himself (on the couch at home).
>>>
>>> [As I look down the street where I live, not a single householder mows his
>>> own lawn or washes his own windows.  The trucks come around from the diaper
>>> service, the laundry and even to deliver groceries.  They look at me like
>>> I'm crazy because I do my own gardening--they can't even name the flowers in
>>> their own yards.  I have yet to meet a young person in these parts who was
>>> not destined for college--the kids wear college sweatshirts from junior high
>>> school onward.  What will happen to those who don't get into college?  Will
>>> they hate themselves or feel betrayed, like the folks with degrees who can't
>>> find the job they want?]
>>>
>>> And tell me, what is it about actual work that the educated classes
>>> dislike?  Is it the duties or the milieu, or perhaps the label?  My own Pop
>>> left the aircraft business to take a two-thirds cut in pay to be a
>>> schoolteacher.  For a smart man he was an idiot.  And very proud to be an
>>> intellectual.  Sometimes I wonder exactly what that means.
>>>
>>> Once we had masses of people demanding jobs; now we have masses of
>>> educated folk demanding jobs that won't dirty their hands--and also that
>>> these jobs be located in clean, well-lit offices among others of their
>>> kind.  Tell me the truth:  would you work at something other than
>>> librarianship for the same money or better?  And why don't you now?
>>>
>>> M. McGrorty
>>> ________________________________
>>> Make your summer sizzle with fast and easy recipes for the grill.
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