alex the girl

One of the biggest motivating lines I've heard parents use on their children for obtaining a "good life" is, if you don't study hard, you'll end up just a garbage man. Hearing that line always makes me cringe.

In the summer of 1996 I lived in the West End of Vancouver, Canada. A charming, well-kept neighbourhood that bordered the beach, Stanly Park and the downtown corridor. Living there was brilliant - and desired. It's vacancy rate has always held at under 1%.

But that summer, it became a not so dreamy place to live when the Garbage Men went on strike. At first, nobody felt anything. However, after a week or two, when garbage overflowed every dumpster, the alleys and streets smelt so bad and our once pristine area was dirtier than you could ever imagine, people were calling up their local garbage men, pleading for them to go back to work.

It'd take them two months and in during those two months, anyone who lived in or visited the West End learned how important a Garbage Man was.

It's always bothered me in America how there is this push for University and becoming something. Don't get me wrong - I totally support education, learning and being the best you can be. What I don't support is the idea that University and being a CEO is all that there is and everyone has to go that route because if they don't, they'll be nothing more than a garbage man and who wants that?

I think that kind of thinking is unfair to those who want or have more basic jobs - jobs we need. If you want to be a plumber, I don't think you need four years in University; you need a trade school. If you want to just work retail, then some courses and experience might serve you best. Isn't high school supposed to teach you a lot, prepare you in some way? I don't think it does in America that much considering how people say here it isn't worth anything nowadays.

If education is supposed to be something everyone ought to do, why is it so expensive? Why isn't it free? If education is important, if becoming a better person is important, why don't the rates drop? Why are parents told to start saving for their child's university when they're a baby? It doesn't make sense.

I've seen a lot of people go through university who come out only knowing how to pass tests and do the minimum to graduate. They're often not any smarter, happier or more in touch with what to do with their lives. They go in on automatic pilot and come out just as confused - but with a sense they are somehow better than somehow who didn't go.

Oh, I know this isn't the case with every graduate but I don't see why people are looked down on for not going to university, for being a garbage man, or a teller, or a clerk. We need those services so why look down on the people who do them?

I should confess that I have not been to university but that doesn't mean that I'm not educated. I had an excellent high school education and when I compare my last two years of school to that of my husbands first two years of university, they're the same. When I compare my travels, experiences, and learning on the job to the latter of this two years they're almost the same. I chose to learn and become something, just in a different way. In fact, every major job I've had has always required a university degree - something I don't have - yet I've always landed the jobs anyway.

It took Chris three schools and ten years to graduate. He admits that his first school he failed at because he wasn't ready for it; he went because he thought that's what one did when they graduated high school and his family told him he had to go or he'd end up in the gutter. He wasn't into it, the classes, the school and had no idea who he was and why he was doing it. So he dropped out. He took a break for a year and chose a different school and did fairly well but again, was on automatic pilot - it didn't have purpose or meaning. He had to leave that school when we changed states and his education was on hold for a couple of years. When he decided to go back to school, it was because he wanted to and had a clear idea of who he was and what he wanted. He wasn’t going because his mum told him he had to or because he had no alternatives. And when he went to this third school, he went in a specialized program that focused on what he wanted and he rocked it out; graduated magna cum laude, using his knowledge from his job for school and vice versa and actually enjoying what he was learning and the classes he took. His last university experience was completely different - and better - than his first because it was his choice and not something he just because he was told to do.

In a lot of Commonwealth Countries it's very normal for a person out of high school to go on a one year work holiday somewhere. Take some time off to visit places, learn about the world, others and themselves. Often people return home to study or apprentice and sometimes they return to do a more basic job. It's been my experience when an 18-year old in America says they want to take off for a year that they're going to be told their flightly, won't amount to anything and are ruining their life. They're 18. Learning doesn't have to take place from 18-22 or in a University - it just has to take place sometime, somehow, somewhere.

And, if this is the country of the free and individual, why isn't that more accepted? Why is everyone expected to do the same thing and become some kind of rock star making millions and if they don't, you can look down on them and use their life to frighten your children.

As I said, I'm not bashing University whatsoever. I totally believe in and support education and learning. My point is that there's more than one way to do this and if someone chooses a different way or more basic work, there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone is different.

Diversity makes the world go round so why would there ever be any expectations to be all the same? And anyone who's not is somehow bad or less than? Maybe one person doesn't want to be a garbage man but it doesn't mean they don't need them. It doesn't mean they're better than. It just means they're doing something different.