CW (in ) said:

| A little background. I'm the foreman of a small machine shop.
| Business has been picking up greatly and we are in need of
| machinists. We are having very little luck in finding qualified
| people and when we find someone that seems promising, it generally
| turns out that they are no more than a machine operator. Able to
| set up and operate a CNC (usually a vertical mill) but no more, nor
| do they want to do more. We have gotten to the point of training
| people into the position. We have gone through a number of them.
| Many, when they find out that it is real work and they can't just
| stop thinking and show up to work on autopilot after a month or
| two, either quit or become worthless to the point that they get
| fired. We have two trainees in the shop right now. One is female
| (extremely rare in this trade). She never made it through high
| school but has a GED. I'm finding that she has a great learning
| ability and enthusiasm. It is quite obvious that her problems in
| school were due to boredom.

I see the exact same thing. One of my discoveries has been that
enthusiasm, like love, is the outcome of an ongoing decision process.
Let me encourage you to nurture her enthusiasm and to encourage the
people around her to do the same (there are real benefits to both the
nurturer and the nurtured in this process).

| To get her math skills up to par, I
| have been giving her homework. She has been doing quite well now
| that she sees a need. To bad someone couldn't have instilled a real
| world need in her in school. She'd be that much further ahead.

I think I recall reading once that the root of "educate" was a word
meaning "to lead". Those who failed to lead her missed out on the
incredible experience of "turning the lights on" for another human
being, which - to me - is truly sad.

Good on you!

| The
| other trainee, a male, just out of high school, made a comment the
| other day that really struck me. He said "I took trigonometry for
| two years and thought it would never be good for anything. Then,
| the first job I get, I need it".

Amazing, that :-D

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto