The long-accepted belief that education and credentials are reliable markers of knowledge and truth worthy of trust, has been seriously dinged over the past years.
The credentialed class as the educated and lettered among us may be called, have been reputedly gifted with critical thinking skills and perspectives beyond that of the less classically educated. And the pronouncements of such experts was met in past generations with minimum scrutiny and maximum acceptance – whether coming from academia, economics, healthcare, media or other respected sources.
Elected government officials have always been treated with suspicion by citizens though still trusted by most, relied upon to do what is in the best interest of the majority.
Meanwhile, the bureaucracy behind the scenes was rarely thought of or questioned, unseen and assumed to be apolitical, industrious servants of the people.
Welcome to a world where we are now doubting them all.
I say this with reluctance, sadness, concern and yet some hope…
Reluctance because I dislike the class warfare currently being leveraged in Canadian politics, pitting so-called elites against so-called working class. Yet to not acknowledge classes or their disproportionate influences is to ignore history and miss a large contributor to some of our larger woes.
Sadness for a time passed where our trust in experts provided a comfortable underpinning, like the calming security of our parents looking after our best interests.
Concern for the dangers of a world in which we question everything and everyone, including the many who truly are experts in their respective fields and where irrefutable truths will always lie. And the potential chaos created by lost faith in institutions and leadership that have been foundational to our modern world.
My hope is that more people who contribute from many corners of our society will realize they have a voice, and that they are relied-upon contributors with a right to raise reasoned perspectives as much as any other - one large group in particular.
You needn’t look far to read articles and polls confirming the degree to which people feel poorly served by those in control of society’s big levers. Even more, they feel misled and treated like rubes incapable of seeing reality through the fog of storylines from those with power and influence. Past articles in this forum have examined failures in academia, healthcare, government and economics as just a few examples, so I will not further prosecute the case. But suffice to say blame is at a high and trust is it a low – after years of exposing the nakedness of the credentialled.
In his book The Treason of Experts | Covid and the Credentialled Class, Thomas S. Harrington delivers a brilliant and concise view of how the experts have badly failed society. As a member of that group he provides insight into the what and why of their failings related primarily to the Covid bungling – at times intentionally self-serving, at times arrogant and often due to shocking ineptness. But while his book tackles Covid as the primary example, Harrington’s approach of “observational detox” calls broadly for more critical thinking by everyone rather than just blindly relying on a growing army of apparent experts.
Let’s look at a large group of Canadians on whom we do rely daily, yet who are not part of the credentialled class.
According to the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA) who run the Red Seal Program, “1 in 5 employed Canadians work in the skilled trades in many sectors of the Canadian economy including construction, manufacturing, service and automotive”. Fifty-four (54) are designated as red seal trades but the total number of recognized trades is closer to 300. As taken from a 2021 RBC report, men comprise ~96% of most “in-demand trades” with 11% of new apprenticeship entrants being women, offering a welcome indication of their increased participation.
Meanwhile, the government’s Economic and Social Development website states, “...skilled tradespeople are in high demand to fill well-paying jobs and build rewarding careers. The most recent projections estimate about 700,000 skilled trades workers are expected to retire between 2019 and 2028, creating an ever-growing need to recruit and train thousands more.”
So while we’re banging away on laptops coding, shuffling numbers, forecasting, opining, analyzing and critiquing – some four (4) million Canadian (mostly) men are daily executing jobs that make our world work – manufacturing, delivering, building and fixing. And we need many more. They are not considered part of the credentialled class and have historically had little voice in our country’s direction, other than through the narrow wage and security demands of their unions or the general vote. But that needs to change. We must move beyond just declaring we “need more skilled tradespeople”, as though they are interchangeable, unthinking and homogenous widgets. And they must step into the discussion.
My father was a construction electrician and former auto mechanic while my mother was a teacher prior to raising us. My siblings and I all received university degrees driven by parents who wanted us to excel at a time when an undergraduate degree was still a differentiator. And we each found our way through successful careers that vary considerably, including the extent to which our degrees contributed to our jobs.
In times gone by perhaps we would be considered part of the credentialled class, though that seems now reserved for those with multiple letters behind their name. With a mere Bachelor of Arts and a career spent in the world of software sales, I consider myself far from credentialled though proud of my knowledgebase and what I have contributed.
I acknowledge that my liberal arts education offered some value for its time. But having spent several years inside the workings of a university along with observations over the years, my view on today’s value of a liberal arts degree has considerably diminished given the poor cost-benefit.
This seems to be setting up for a degree-versus-trades harangue, but that is not my intention. For context I refer to a 2023 interview with Mike Rowe (active advocate for the skilled trades and most popularly the TV host of Dirty Jobs) where he noted, “After we spoke in 2016, there was a presidential debate. Marco Rubio - I forget what the question was - but he said, ‘What this country needs are more welders and fewer philosophers.’ Big applause line. Later that evening, thousands of people were saying, ‘Hey, Mike, this guy's singing your song. This guy gets it.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, crap. I'm doing something wrong.’ Because that's not at all what I mean. What I responded to in the wake of that was, ‘Look, what our country needs are more welders who can talk intelligently about Descartes and Nietzsche. And what our country needs are more philosophers who can run an even bead.’ It's not this or that.”
Rowe further notes, “I don't think it's fair to compare a liberal arts degree to a skilled trade. I just think the proposition is different. But it is fair to say that I can get the exact equivalent of a liberal arts degree if I'm curious, and I have an internet connection, and a smartphone. That wasn't the case in 1984 for me. Access to information is different.”
Indeed.
Starting around the 1980s we saw a disproportionate push in high school guidance departments toward university education and a relegation of trades as second fiddle, alongside a steady disappearance of shop classes from high schools. This combo created the stampede we continue seeing into universities and a growing deficit of skilled tradespeople. But it did something more destructive - which was to create a view that we needed to choose between one or the other, rather than encourage them both.
So while I believe we need to significantly claw back on the growth and funding of liberal arts, we needn’t demonize them. Rather we must elevate skilled trades as a primary proposition and not an “or” relegation. Part of that must be government led since public funding drives the Canadian education system, but we likewise need a major adjustment in societal views about the worth and contribution of the millions who do this work. What are their stories?
My brothers and I were fortunate to learn many practical skills in youth as we worked alongside our father in the garage, house, garden and on our rural property. We learned carpentry, automotive, electrical, plumbing, concrete forming, gardening and machinery. And goodness knows we became proficient with a shovel and wheelbarrow. To this day I’m always proud to do my own work, often with that darn shovel and wheelbarrow. But I don’t confuse my modest skills and weekend warrior back with the capabilities and toughness of the men who do this work for a living.
Over the past few months I’ve been tackling some house and yard projects, the larger of which I cannot complete myself. Naturally, I called in the experts. They’ve included a concrete crew, a shed building company, an electrical company, a tree removal crew, a roofer and a plumbing company. To a man they have been industrious, friendly, skilled and proud of their work – as evidenced by my curious questions of them and in the final product they each delivered with care.
The backgrounds and stories I’ve heard in chatting with these guys has been interesting. Some were university or college educated prior to making career shifts – either intentional or circumstantial. Some started into their trade via college training. Many apprenticed on the job then completed course work and exams to acquire designations and licenses. In my limited discussions most speak highly of their jobs. And anecdotally I’ve proportionately met more happy guys doing this work than the legions of office bound people I knew through my career.
Generalizing personality traits by occupation is as fraught as generalizing by any other attribute. But I can’t help noticing most of these fellows exhibit similar characteristics of practicality, dependability and a no-nonsense attitude with little complaining. As for skills, they often demonstrate the much desired problem solving and creativity sought in white collar professions, in addition to the knowledge of their specific domains.
I suppose that is to say, I see as multi-dimensional a group of people as I’ve witnessed anywhere else - they just happen to get a bit dirty on the job most days. And I’m sure some of them can quote Nietzsche.
But for purposes of political messaging and outreach, these guys are typically just lumped into the working class. And when a politician expresses interest in them he is denigrated as being populist, as though it’s somehow beneath us to include them in the process - except to plumb, wire or fix our house.
Arghh!
A good choir features many voices each singing at relatively equal levels, but Canada’s choir features only shrill sopranos and overpowering basses. The loudest of them have recently been a small group as written of in last week’s Wacko and Weird Battle for Normal – pushing our country down damaging social and cultural ratholes. But the most influential of them are the credentialed class as they drive and create fiscal and foreign policy while pandering to the shrill voices, but often tone deaf to the majority perspective.
Lest readers think I am pushing back on all credentialled experts, that is far from my intention. In fact, I believe we hear too little from real experts in many disciplines such as science, engineering and health – and mostly from technocrats and politicians who package their data into selective narratives.
But my broader observation is that our country is being functionally enabled by a large group of people, the so-called working class, who are not being properly heard or represented, while driven by a powerful group with little interest in hearing them. The former do not yet understand the innate power they have. I hope that changes since their contribution to our collective well being is critical, and I find their perspectives often more on-point than much of the chattering credentialled class who we usually call experts.
Stay tuned and stay pragmatic.
Wow! Yeah, WOW! Perhaps I am being a little self congratulatory because it mimics my sense exactly though says it much better than I ever could. I spent my life in secondary education, a life confronted daily by the dumbest credentialed class on planet earth. For the most part, they were not in classrooms though classrooms do have their share of ignoramuses. Oozing little men in suits, the credentialed supervisors, consultants, educrats were everywhere. Advanced degrees from diploma mills scattered throughout the Country and not enough common sense or useful knowledge to push a wheelbarrow. But, good god, couldn't they pontificate! For eight years, I was one of them. For eight years, I lived with the fear of being caught, of being discovered as one of the many doing nothing useful, just collecting a pay cheque. When I confessed my thoughts to a friend, he consoled me thusly: "Fear not! The scam that you have going is minor compared to the scam of the one above you, and, the scam that he's working on is minimal compared to the scam that's operating above him. On and on it goes". Contrarians were considered negative and not welcomed in the education racket - it is a racket - and it needs contrarians like no other. Anyway, today at the ripe young age of 75, I am renovating my bathroom. It requires a little familiarity with plumbing, electrical, drywalling, etc. Useful skills that I aquired while building three of my own houses in the last 50 years. Haven't read much of Nietzsche, but too much of history. I have to get back to that damn bathroom!