Seems to be, if you believe Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Evans

 As you can see, she also represents more charming people, like Liz Smith and Peggy Noonan.

 There is some group that has ganged up here to hurl invective.  I am not sure why.  I don’t think they are having much fun.

Marjorie, while I generally don’t agree with what I perceive to be your conservative politics, I have to say that you’ve hit the nail on the head.

There are some kids that just are not "university material"; that are much more mechanically inclined.  There are still manufacturing jobs in America (watch John Ratzenberger’s "Made in America" on cable TV). 

I’ve spent the last 30 years as a sewage treatment plant operator, making more money than most of the kids I graduated from high school with who went on to college.  Of course, many of them (especially the guys who wanted to avoid the draft) went for what were considered "easy ride" degrees; liberal arts & political science. Some of those kids ended up in low-level sales clerk jobs; one I know could only find work at McDonald’s.

Fortunately, there is a good technical & trades high school here, & the public tech college sysytem is good, too.

Marjorie, I agree with you also. 

Although, I think the most important lines of his speech were the ones where he told parents to turn off the TV and read to their kids, and that dropping out of High School was dropping out on the country. Maybe if more parents and students were serious they would do better in college.

But your point is a good one 

Hello Marjorie C. -

I enjoyed your remarks about trade schools etc.  I think, as a country, we have to start thinking about the kids who have zero interest in computers or higher education.  Trade schools - hundreds of them sound like a good start.

Marjorie,

 Wow, do I agree with you on the trade schools angle!  There is such a crying need for people, men and women, to serve us in areas others do not want to do, and yet they could do well, if only they were trained, and I speak of such vocations as plumbers, carpet layers, mechanics, and the like.  If society gave all trades the recognition they deserve, we would all benefit.

I had a good friend in high school (and this is back in the 1960s) who had taken all the auto shop classes, because she knew she wanted to be a mechanic in a local garage.  She got a job the day after high school graduation, and I am sure she is doing well now.  Could be she even owns a chain of auto repair shops! 

Here in the Rocky Mountain region there was a woman by the name of Emily Griffith, who in the early 1900s began an "Opportunity School", to allow those who wanted a trade to have the chance to do something other than college.  We are NOT all needed in colleges, as our gifts and talents may lie in areas of direct service, such as the trades, and I welcome more schools such as Emily’s.  It is still in existence, and offers classes in auto mechanics, cosmetology, dressmaking, ESL, Licensed Practical Nursing, Computers, and the culinary arts.  Many of the graduates leave the Opportunity School and go on to waiting employment, as the school has an excellent reputation for high standards and achievement.

In the Middle Ages, guilds were begun, and served societies with craftsmen and women who would train, apprentice, and go on to high quality production.  We would not have glassmakers, for example, without the guilds, which still serve Europe so well today. 

Given the necessity for our country to compete on a global scale today, I disagree with your last comment—I think our children need a high school education, so that they can read well (and hopefully enjoy it for its own sake!), do calculations necessary for daily basic skills of life (without use of a calculator, please!), and get some appreciation of the arts and science in general, either biology or other kinds of science.   Then, after the basic skills of life are inculcated, they might be able to go on to pursue their aspirations, whether that be the trades or studies best gained in colleges and universities.

Thanks, WOW, for a chance to express this opinion.  Not too often do I get a chance to root for trade schools, but I dearly feel they are lacking and we need to bring them back.

Not everybody is a book learner, but good and ample trade schools would produce all the plumbers and electricians and technicians of all sorts that a society needs. >

If we want children to be book learners, they need to be introduced to books in their earliest years — infancy is not too soon — so that when they get to elementary school, they’ll be ready for learning.  

And they deserve fiscal equality in public schools. We can’t expect children to succeed academically if they don’t have the tools to work with.  Imo, too many teens wind up learning a trade because their elementary schools are deficient.