"If you don’t pay attention you’ll be flipping burgers for the rest of your life!"

Without a doubt most every high school student of the past thirty years has overheard this threat, or something very similar, come from one of their teachers. This statement, so basic and so common, is one that can be looked at in two opposing ways and I’m leaning towards disdain of its very foundation.

From the standpoint of the white-collar bureaucracy of modern academia the threat is elicited to grab the attention of a bad pupil and compel him to strive for higher grades and a better life. It seems well intentioned to most folks, but I find that it reeks of classism…a form of prejudice based not on race but social standing. By identifying a job as meaningless and decrying those who choose such a career path, the person partaking in such behavior is truly guilty of disrespecting his fellow Man and his role in our society.

Classists fail to understand that every job, dirty or clean, menial or amusing, skilled or unskilled, has its place in our economic system and meaning to the consumer. In any organizational structure everyone contributes to what you get out of a good or service. With expectations as high as they are - you as a consumer expect, want and deserve the very best – it takes an army of people to satisfy your needs. Each and every employee has some level of valuable input to what you receive and, essentially, your quality of life. CEOs and white-collar people may get the most press by defining the overall scope of a company and making its decisions, but there are many more countless people behind the scenes making products, moving products, ringing up your bill, providing your customer service and more. It’s these people, the "burger flippers" of the world, who provide for your materialistic demands.

These very same "burger flippers" are providing for more than just the consumers. They are also providing for their own families’ needs. Any individual who takes a job, as "menial" or as "dead end" as the classists may believe it to be, should be respected for his efforts in punching that timeclock daily, making a living and putting a roof over his head and food in his kids’ bellies. There’s something to be said for the work ethic and love of a working mother who’s taken a factory job or clerk position to bring some extra income to her family, improving their standard of life, all while she balances the matronly duties she accepts at the homefront. You can’t teach that sort of blue-collar ethic in high school.

And, that’s not the only blue-collar stuff being ignored in schools. The skills aren’t being taught, either. Back when I was a high schooler (early 90’s) - and still to this day - school administrators looked at those interested in education at BOCES (machining, car repair, nursing, etc.) like they had the plague. The administration either did its best to push them towards standard classes or used BOCES as a dumping ground for "lesser" students. Vocational education has never been given the great respect it deserves. Ironically, those students who stuck with it despite their counselors’ reservations now have better paying, more-long-term jobs than their traditionally-schooled peers.

Sure, a good many of the teachers who toss around the burger flipping threat may be sincere in their ways, not classist at all, instead wanting the very best for their students. But, the reality of life is, shirts and ties and high-paying jobs are not the normal way of life. Outside of the halls of academia and the theoretical world that it believes exists out there is an economy that is founded on middle-income, hands-on jobs and the numbers show it: The median household income in Niagara County (two breadwinners) is $40,000.

I guess that means there are probably a lot of people out there who never lived up to the expectations of their teachers. We’re better off because of that, because those expectations are and will continue to be very unreasonable and very unfortunate. If everyone were like what they wanted us all to be, nothing would get done. Products wouldn’t be made or sold, houses would never be built or repaired, and food wouldn’t be grown and prepared. Is that what we as a society want? No.

Long live the burger flippers!