My girlfriend teaches high school, and has been telling me about a few kids she has who are in trouble.
She believes that they simply don’t care about school, would rather be working for a living, so they are tuning her out.
She thought that since I was the same way, that I could maybe help these kids figure it all out. She didn’t want me to try and convince them to care about high school (because I never did, and still don’t). She wanted me to talk to them about learning a trade, like HVAC work, as a path to get them out of school faster. In my day, all the teachers were focused on college and only college, so learning a trade like plumbing or HVAC or building construction was never a part of the conversation. It’s intellectual elitism, where humanities majors think they are superior to the working class, but HVAC has always done me very well. A certified HVAC technician can start off making excellent pay, with full benefits and time off, and quite frankly we make a lot more than teachers. I caved in to her demands and had a quick talk with a group of young people, telling them how long it takes to learn HVAC work, and then how much you can make from doing it. When I told them how I dropped out, got my GED and my HVAC certification, and started making money by the time I was 18, they all got real interested. HVAC work isn’t for everyone, but don’t let anyone say it isn’t a good job.