The days of lots of laborers on any job have seen erosion.

Partly due to automation, to skirt around the rising cost of employing John and Jane Doe. And a change in what we consume, find important for pleasure, for survival. Would you hire your own kids?

Do you have all you need, and what are the basic elements of your contented life, to achieve your purpose here on Earth? What is “comfortable” for you may not be the same laundry list of items for others. Those around you may scribble down, crumple up and carry shoved deep down inside their pocket a slightly different bullet list. The distinction of what is written down in black, blue, or red and white may be from a country or city mouse existence approach to life.

In smaller areas of the country of little towns, better spending control and get your money’s worth conservative thinking, the coins come harder.

Dollars are not let go of so easy. And on the smaller local scale, everything is much more out in the open. Visible and not layered so highly that it becomes the pea under the mattress to figure out and fix the insomnia. The reason for falling asleep at the wheel. And heading into the ditch, beyond. Life and business skills go hand in hand.

So skills for the laborers we produce to put online. Starts with values planted early on as kids. The set of talents as parents, extended family, educators, mentors, coaches, ministers, neighbors and local community members all together instill. Then the kid adds their own gas to fuel the passion. To develop and hone what they hang on their utility belt. To carry on tradition of the “right stuff”, true grit for a rugged individual worth having at work.

Pulling their weight in the society.

And the worker that adds new twists, direction dance steps to think on their feet. Adapt, adjust, bob and weave. To correct the course to account for change in the economic storms that happen daily in everything around us. You can not have a we have always done it this way mentality to have necessary change. To survive and prosper with a smile on your face, joy in your heart.

Change that keeps step with progress. But also is a knee jerk reaction to erosion of skills. The ones needed to be productive, to contribute to the greater good. To be considered an asset not liability, dead wood. If healthy enough to pitch in, add color, flavor. seasoning to the local community. But jobs needing filling can go empty because finding the right skilled employee can be needle in the haystack hard.

During a local Rotary Club meeting yesterday, the topic of discussion was change in the education system.

The approach to the curriculum to make it stick, roll around the head of the students. Not just be a cram for a test that you ace because of an all nighter approach to get the “A”. Then forget what you can suddenly recite that has no meaning, nothing to stick to the ribs. No take away. To lay the foundation of the cognitive wiring of our workers of tomorrow in the classrooms of today. To carry between the ears, behind the eyes the skill set a business needs. To keep you hired, on the payroll. Being ahead of that curve means seeing it. Before entering in at a very high speed in dim, drizzly wet conditions. With way too much loose gravel on the steep, sharp curve.

One Rotary member lamented seeing a resume that would make you catch your breath, smile brightly with relief in the hiring process. Because of a heavily loaded list of 4.0 mastery with the present grading standards to win the cream of the crop marks. But then hired the person with expectations big, to find out they can not problem solve. Their education works around the classroom race track. But not the one of real life outside the school.

Another employer told me yesterday the job applicant on paper looked world class. But when hired, was lazy, unimaginative, and had pretty much been a student most of their employable life. Not a real world contributor to earn a living outside the higher learning institutions. Stuck in the educational fountain of knowledge bubble way way too long.

Part of the problem is making sure no ones feelings get hurt.

That it’s light, bright and always entertaining before boredom takes over. Let Jimmy take the test over and over until he gets the 4.0. Feels the same high of mastery in a field that Jimmy may be just way over his head. And not the direction he should be heading for employment. So the employer does not shock the kid with over and over demands for skills he lacks. That got left out in the busy work of the latest and greatest education system parked on the easel during assembly, teacher workshops. The kid can get lost but think he is a whiz at this, this and he is not on the stage outside the one with the desk, apple on it up front.

The courses are an education obstacle proving grounds to get the rolled up diploma wearing the square cocked hat with tassel. That more and more may not match the real world. What it is going to take to have under your belt to bring home the bacon. To keep food on the table because you can exchange a needed skill with consistency, a positive attitude for the paycheck with your name stamped on it. Success outside the classroom being the proof in the pudding.

Maine, smaller, leaner, and able to adapt quicker once we see where the problems are. More connected, we talk pretty openly, crusty and not afraid of the truth among ourselves. Feel in the 108 small towns more of a personal stake in the game of local life. It is up to each and every one of us because there are no extras for reinforcements. To leap off the bench, spell any of us in most cases.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com