How Many Are Following the "Worst Advice in the History of The World"

Erica Ritz:

Mike Rowe, widely-known from the hit TV show "Dirty Jobs" and a series of Ford commercials, appeared on The Glenn Beck Program Wednesday to discuss his efforts with the mikeroweWORKS Foundation in challenging "the absurd belief that a four-year degree is the only path to success."

"We're lending money we don't have, to kids who will never be able to pay it back, for jobs that no longer exist," he explained, echoing what he told TheBlaze TV's Andrew Wilkow earlier this month. "That's crazy, right? That's what we've been doing for the last forty years."

Rowe's motivation for the work largely began with what he described as "the worst advice in the history of the world" - a poster he saw in high school challenging students to "work smart, not hard." The picture of the person working "smart" was holding a diploma, and the person working "hard" looked miserable performing some form of manual labor.

"Today, skilled trades are in demand. In fact, there are 3 million jobs out there that companies are having a hard time filling. So we thought that skilled trades could do with a PR campaign," he said with a smile. "So we took the same idea, went ahead and vandalized it. Work smart AND hard.'"

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 11, 2013 12:48 AM
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