The 21st Century Will Belong to Those Who Do the Work

A Small Subset of Career Possibilities
Source: http://www.laredoisd.org/departments/CTE/images/CAREER%20MAP.JPG

Finding skilled workers who are willing to do the work is becoming a challenge in the 21st century. Outside of the homeschooled, it is becoming more and more difficult to find disciplined and conscientious learners and workers. Everyone wants to “have it made.” Few want to do what it takes to earn it.

There is an old saying, “There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who do the work, and those who take the credit.” The saying advises that one should be among those who do the work – because there is less competition…

The world will always need scientists, engineers, inventors, machinists, physicians and veterinarians, farmers, and productive workers. It will always have a surplus of paper shufflers and others who prefer not to work…

The 21st century will belong to those who do the work. They will receive the satisfaction of productive effort, the wealth of goods and services that others will exchange with them, and the confidence of knowing that their skills will always be needed. Be sure your homeschooled student is trained to be among them. __Dr. Arthur Robinson

Dr. Arthur Robinson homeschooled his 6 children after the tragic death of his young wife. The children learned multiple practical skills in the course of growing up on a ranch in rural Oregon.

There are six Robinson children, all of them home-schooled. Matthew’s older brother Joshua, 18, has pinned to the wall of his room the skin of a cougar that he trapped. His older brother Noah, 22, was the top chemistry graduate applicant to MIT, but chose instead to go to his father’s school, Caltech. He is working for his Ph.D. in chemistry. Noah’s older brother, Zachary, 24, is at Iowa State University studying to be a doctor of veterinary medicine, and also working for a chemistry Ph.D. Bethany, 18, is still at home, and her older sister Arynne, 20, has finished two years of college. On the piano Matthew is still on grade 1B, but his math is going well. He will be only 14 by the time he has finished calculus.

The area around Cave Junction, not far from the California border, was developed in the gold-rush days… Today it’s farming and tree-growing territory. The Robinson’s have hundreds of sheep and lambs, 15 cows, 7 horses, 4 dogs, and 50 wild turkeys. __ Independent Scientist (2001)

Arthur Robinson has more advice on how to teach children to think — which is a pre-requisite for many occupational pathways:

When my son Noah applied to graduate schools with the intention of earning a Ph.D. in chemistry, he was required to take the GRE, or Graduate Record Exams. These are essentially SAT exams for those seeking advanced degrees. The GRE is a set of three exams: two quantitative and one verbal. Noah’s scores on these exams were unusually high. He scored perfect 800s on both quantitative exams and a 99 percentile score of 770 on the verbal exam. These scores and his undergraduate record were such that, at MIT, he was told that he was their top-ranked graduate applicant of the year.

Yet, the GRE math exams do not contain higher mathematics or any math problems of special difficulty, and the verbal exam is largely a vocabulary test. So why do the top science graduate schools base their admissions largely on two exams that test speed and accuracy in working simple math problems and a verbal exam that is largely a vocabulary test?

The answer is that they want, above all else, students who can think. Those who lack basic math skills and rich vocabularies simply do not have the necessary tools to do so. __ Dr. Arthur Robinson

In conventional educational approaches, many or most faculties of the human mind are allowed to atrophy from non-use or misuse. That is why homeschooling is becoming more crucial to the future of advanced societies. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, in all of its many aspects.

More Arthur Robinson resources:

Robinson Homeschool Curriculum
Access to Energy
Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine

Academic training alone is not nearly enough to prepare our young for what they will face in the 21st century. They have to be both willing and able to do the work that needs to be done. Whether the work is of a research, administrative, educational, or practical nature, the skills, aptitude, and the productive mental attitude must come together in the same person.

When the child is young — before his ultimate career paths become clear — is a time for learning a wide range of physical, mental, emotional, and and other skills and abilities. These skills and abilities will be built upon by many occupational training sets.

For example, mechanical skills (physical and mental) are incredibly useful to engineers, orthopedic surgeons, dentists, and many other professionals. There is nothing that says that a neurosurgeon cannot also be a highly skilled welder or robotics experimenter. Actuaries can also be highly skilled chefs or musicians. Patent attorneys might also speak multiple languages and be talented sculptors. Investment bankers could also know how to operate heavy construction machinery, and be able to pour and shape concrete. And all of them can be experts in the use of multiple weapons systems.

Assist the very young child in learning seminal skills and fertile talents, which can fortify and underlie higher level skills, talents, and competencies. These higher level skills, talents, and competencies will then spawn yet higher levels of learning, competency, and innovation.

It is crucial not to waste the sensitive and critical periods of development, which every child will pass through on the way to adulthood. Currently, the potentials and talents of most children are being badly abused by educational systems, popular culture, peers, parents, and other institutions of society.

The 21st century will belong to those who are able and willing to do the work.