Quick hits: Mail riders of the past; the future of meat; child care solution; Thoreau's cabin; PFAS-free water

A mail rider makes his way through a creek bed near
Jackson, Ky., in 1940. (Library of Congress photo)

Over hill and dale and on all kinds of trails, horseback postal routes required mail riders to face treacherous paths, wild weather, unpredictable wildlife and inaccurate maps. "Routes they took were originally Native American and traders’ paths and roads carved through the forests, river valleys and mountains," writes Todd Kozak for Lancaster Farming. "Post riders and their horses worked in all weather and on set schedules. . . . A map of post routes published by the post office in 1897 shows a myriad of routes and offices. By the early 1920s, most of them had vanished."

Human diets of the future might not be about going vegan, quitting bacon or eschewing beef. Instead, Bruce Friedrich, author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future, presents "alternative meat" as the planet's best answer. "And to be clear, he’s not talking about gardenburgers or tofurkey," writes Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch. "We now have the ability to take real meat cells from an animal and replicate them. The product is actually meat, but it’s not from a dead animal. . . . Alternative meat can’t compete by being better for the environment or nicer for animals. For most people, he acknowledges, food is not an ethical decision. It has to taste as good and be as cheap. . . ."

At Little Break, parents can be on-site with their 
children and still get their work done. (Little Break photo)

For parents struggling to find affordable child care, a new model being used in Michigan offers a solution that combines parental work spaces with a child care center. "Users say its prices are a fraction of what other daycare centers charge," reports Anna Patton of Reasons to be Cheerful. "Little Break" is a nonprofit, non-licensed child care facility where "parents must remain on-site, and take care of feeding and diaper changes. Otherwise, they get on with work in an adjoining room, while paid staff. . . watch the children." An added perk of the model is that parents can be there to witness childhood milestones they would otherwise miss.

Tired of their current work lives, some mid-career professionals have left their jobs and trained in a trade. "At 27, Lauren O’Connor was living paycheck to paycheck as a Montessori teacher, making $29 an hour with no benefits," report Allison Pohle and Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Today, the 33-year-old earns $45 an hour — brazing, welding and soldering pipes for a local contractor. Though she sees more women on job sites these days, it wasn’t that way at first. Proving herself to the guys was stressful, she says." Other trades career-changers took up were airline pilot, electrical apprentice and cardiovascular sonographer.

 Original title page of Walden featuring a 
picture drawn by Thoreau's sister Sophia.

Among more modern fans of Henry David Thoreau's 1854 book, Walden or Life in the Woods, a group is building "full-scale replicas" of the late transcendentalist's cabin, reports Dorie Chevlen of The New York Times. Thoreau's book, which centers on simple life and self-reliance, recounts how he built his little cabin all on his own, except when neighbors helped him raise the frame. Two brothers, Jasper and Satchel Sieniewicz, who worked together to build a replica, "can’t believe it was a one man job. . . . Even using a sawmill and power tools, it took them three summers of labor ... Thoreau was living in his cabin in under three months." Read how other Thoreau fans fared with their Walden cabins here. 

In the small community of Rothschild, Wis., the water is healthier because it's nearly PFAS free. PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," can cause devastating health issues for humans. The village used settlement dollars to build a new water treatment facility. "This facility is actively working to decrease the levels of PFAS in the community's drinking water," reports Dylan Eckhart of WAOW. The Rothschild plant "utilizes a granular activated carbon filtration system to remove PFAS. . . .PFAS contamination became a concern for Rothschild residents in 2022 when it was detected in a sample from village wells."

Skilled labor started recruiting from high school shop classes; high school graduates can make over $60,000

Skilled trades can offer training during high school
and a good-paying job upon graduation. (Adobe Stock photo)

Skilled labor training is helping some high schoolers land jobs with big pay before they even graduate. "Companies with shortages of skilled workers look to shop class to recruit future hires," reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Elijah Rios won’t graduate from high school until next year, but he already has a job offer — one that pays $68,000 a year."

While the U.S. shortage of skilled labor has been building over time, baby boomer retirements have pushed trade-based companies that need a pipeline of trained professionals to "turn to creative recruiting strategies," Te-Ping explains. "More businesses are teaming up with high schools to enable students to work part-time, earning money as well as academic credit. More employers are showing up at high school career days." The renewed interest in hiring from the trades has helped revive high school shop programming.

Younger workers generally are more at ease with incorporating technology into their work, which is another reason trade recruiters are stepping up their "shop class" connections. According to the WSJ article, "Employers say that as the skilled trades become more tech-infused, they anticipate doing even more recruitment at an early age, because they need workers who are comfortable programming and running computer diagnostics."

One of the best things employers can do to "get a foot into high schools early on is by offering internships, says Roxanne Amiot, an automotive instructor at Bullard-Havens Technical School in Bridgeport, Conn.," Te-Ping writes. She told the Journal, “I tell them, don’t call me for students when they graduate, grab them now when they’re 16 or 17, or I have nobody to work for you.”

The recruitment opportunities and wages that trade professions offer signal a dramatic shift away from the "college-for-all mindset," according to the article. "[But] it’s important to make sure students are made aware of all their options, says Steve Klein, a researcher who focuses on vocational education. . . . At the same time, as interest in vocational education rises, he worries that sentiment runs the risk of swinging too much in the other direction."

High school shop classes are back and in high demand. The training offers students hands-on exploration.

Many high school shop classes now offer
welding. (Photo by J. Thomas, Unsplash)

High schools around the United States are ramping up their shop classes to help students explore professional trade careers. The hands-on shop class offerings can range from wood to metals to machinery and are designed to let high school students learn what manual work has to offer.

The shift has school districts from big cities to small towns finding innovative ways to "revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century," reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college."

For decades, high schools cut classes and staffing for trade-based learning, which left many trade businesses hurting for skilled labor. To address the shortfall, "local governments, school districts, businesses and voters are investing in shop classes," Chen explains. "Ohio and other states offer schools financial incentives for classes that lead to industry certifications in such high-demand jobs as pharmaceutical technician and pipe fitter."

In Sutherlin, Ore., a small town of 8,524, almost half of its high school students are enrolled in Josh Gary’s woodworking class. "When Gary took over the shop class in 2014, he had 30 students and little equipment," Chen reports. "He bought used tools on Craigslist with his own money and raised funds selling picnic tables he made with students."

With the renewed interest in trade professions, Gary's shop classes "feature laser cutters and computer-assisted routers that enable high-level detail work," Chen writes. "Last year, Sutherlin High opened a $750,000 metal shop. A $375,000 state grant paid for new tools, and $50,000 from Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a program launched by the tool-retailer’s founder, bought a pickup truck for use by the classes."

Expanded shop classes can let students try out a trade without paying for an expensive vocational program. The classes also give students who don't want to attend college a path for career development. Staci Sievert, a teacher at Seymour Community High School in Seymour, Wis., told Chen, "I just felt like we were shortchanging our kids, our community and our families if we weren’t raising the bar in tech ed." More than 20% of jobs around Seymour are in manufacturing.

Many high school graduates are choosing vocational training for trades that pay well and don't require 4-year degrees

Trade education is less expensive and offers good wages.
(Photo by Robert Lambert, Unsplash)

For decades, U.S. high school graduates who wanted to make a decent living went to college, but as skilled labor numbers have dwindled and higher education costs have soared, Generation Z is donning tool belts and embracing the trades, reports Te-Ping Chen of The Wall Street Journal. "Skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers. . . Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work."

The cost of a college degree has made it less appealing to some high school graduates. "Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen," Chen writes. "The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018."

For some potential students, work that means sitting at a computer all day isn't appealing, but learning a hands-on trade for good pay seems to offer more rewards. "'Not everyone needs a degree, and it takes the value out of a degree if everyone has it,' says George Belcher, 18, a high school senior in Texas. Belcher long assumed he'd go to college, but. . . he grew curious about life in the oil industry," Chen reports. "This fall, he'll enroll in trade school for $14,000 for a two-year degree and plans to work on an offshore oil rig. 'I love the ocean,' he says. He also likes the idea of working for weeks, then resting for weeks, a schedule typical with such roles."

Overall, many trade-oriented employers see their labor pipelines refilling. "At energy service company Lantern Energy, in Glastonbury, Conn., CEO Peter Callan says in the past year, he has seen more people applying for technician jobs who were on a college track and decided it wasn't ultimately for them," Chen adds. "The overall number of applications the company receives has roughly tripled in the past five years."