They installed my new washer and dryer this morning.  I am on my fourth load of laundry.  An interesting note about that:  When I took Squig to the Vet last week, the Vet spent at least twenty minutes with me, explaining everything.  Then took Squig to the back to run some tests.  My entire bill was fifty-five dollars.  For a medical veterinarian doctor.

When I called a service man last week to see if he could fix my dryer, he walked in and said, "It's seventy-five dollars for the call to be paid now for me to look at it.  And another eighty-five dollars to fix it if I can.  Parts will be extra."

That's one-hundred and sixty dollars plus parts.  With no guarantee that he would be able to fix it.  Somebody needs to advise high-school students to go into the repair business.

That kind of work has exploded in demand.  Probably because college doesn't teach very many hands on trades.  So nobody knows how to do common stuff.  Since the fifties we have geared high school courses to a pre-college direction.

Back when I was in the eighth grade, nobody had to go to school after that.  High school was for those going into professional careers.  Which obviously isn't needed any more to make a decent living. Now, we have a standard curriculum that everybody has to meet to graduate, and twelve years of education required to graduate instead of stopping at eight. 

There were also apprentice programs back then as well.  Where you could learn to do things.  One of the best kept secrets in Oklahoma is our Vo-tec schools.  Years ago we voted a sales tax exclusively for Vo-tec schools and now we have a bunch of them with permanent funding.  State of the art.  Low size classes.  Well paid teachers.  It's a real success story.  My son Jon taught physics at a high school, but now teaches robotics, drones, and such at a Vo-tec school.