\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSo \u2014\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to the University of Oregon.\u201d \u201cColorado School of Mines.\u201d \u201cSyracuse University.\u201d \u201cC.S.U.\u2014L.A.\u201d \u201cI wanted to be like a medical student. I realize now that I want to become an electrician.\u201d There used to be straightforward messaging about how to achieve success in America. \u201cGo to school, go to college, get a degree, make money.\u201d But times have changed. Student debt has skyrocketed. Jobs are hard to find, and now A.I. is threatening to upend the economy. \u201cLike you can barely find jobs nowadays.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot about coders \u2014 how A.I. just completely eliminated them.\u201d \u201cIt feels as though the economy is like just continuously moving against us.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a perfect American dream anymore. I think, honestly.\u201d In California, the world\u2019s A.I. capital, the state is keenly aware that students are looking for new options. \u201cNo one cares how much you know because ChatGPT knows more.\u201d It\u2019s part of a nationwide conversation happening in government, at schools and increasingly on the internet. \u201cWhy the hell would you go to college? Like, seriously.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s so many people with multiple degrees that are broke.\u201d \u201cI became a millionaire from construction like a year and a half ago.\u201d \u201cI would see all these people saying, \u2018I dropped out of high school, I dropped out of college, and I\u2019m a millionaire.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I need to learn how to do that.\u2019\u201d California is pouring money into hands-on trade programs in public schools. There\u2019s a construction labor shortage in the state, and in 2021, the state doubled a grant for classes like this to help solve it. \u201cYeah \u2014 hit it like it owes you money. So start it off steep so you can swing your hammer back. State of California educational system has seen that if students are not going to go to a four-year college. They should have an option. I would say over 95 percent of my students, maybe even higher, have never used any tools before in their life. And I would say almost 100 percent had never used a power tool. Ta da \u2014 see, you know how to do it. \u201cNo, I had no idea this class existed. I didn\u2019t even really consider construction seriously until I took this class.\u201d \u201cI actually did consider, oh, maybe I should go to trade school. Or maybe I should focus less on aero-engineering as a degree.\u201d \u201cA.I. is not going to build a home. A.I. isn\u2019t going to weld anything either.\u201d \u201cWe had somebody come and talk to our class about electricians and can still make $200,000 a year.\u201d More students across the country are choosing to go to trade school \u2014 but working with your hands still comes with a stigma, and the college path still holds a lot of power. \u201cYeah \u2014 yeah. Almost 100 percent.\u201d \u201cI think a lot of people, especially older generations, still believe that trades are like dirty.\u201d \u201cI have students who are very good carpenters, and their parents still want them to go to college, and I totally respect that.\u201d \u201cI come from an immigrant family, and so pressure has been even more heavy. They\u2019re supportive. They\u2019re just a little disappointed that I\u2019m not going to college.\u201d \u201cThey don\u2019t want their sons or daughters to go into the trades. They think it is less than. And I try to have this conversation with them and say the trades are a good place to go to make a living. There you go.\u201d But for this generation of Bay Area kids, who grew up in the pandemic and are seeing major changes in the tech industry, the overall feeling is that no path is safe. \u201cAs you can see, we just built these little kitchen tiles and to me they look great. If you make a wrong decision, that could lead you into a debt spiral and you\u2019re just kind of stuck.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t have any friends that are really wanting to go into the tech industry at all because of A.I.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re paying $400,000 and then what are you going to get from it?\u201d \u201cLike, am I going to be able to make all this back when I get a job?\u201d \u201cAnd we have a storage cabinet in here. This generation, especially, you really have to think about what you\u2019re going to do. Because if your plan is not future-proof, the world is going to eat you. It\u2019s so small, but it\u2019s a pretty cozy little home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSo \u2014\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to the University of Oregon.\u201d \u201cColorado School of Mines.\u201d \u201cSyracuse University.\u201d \u201cC.S.U.\u2014L.A.\u201d \u201cI wanted to be like a medical student. I realize now that I want to become an electrician.\u201d There used to be straightforward messaging about how to achieve success in America. \u201cGo to school, go to college, get a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[667,5154,23265,1928,514],"class_list":{"0":"post-49899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-construction","10":"tag-convince","11":"tag-teens","12":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}