Many years ago my father introduced me to the Joshua books by Joseph F. Grizone. I was instantly intrigued by the first book of the series, simply entitled Joshua, which was described as a parable encouraging the reader to think about what it would be like if Jesus came back to live in this time in our history; what would he be like, and what would his suggestions be to promote peace, love and prosperity, both intellectually as well as spiritually.
Ten years later I decided I wanted these books to add to my own growing library so I went online in search of the books written by the retired Catholic priest. I loved his style of writing...it was simple and believable. To my surprise I found that the author had written more books with the remarkable Joshua as the central character who traveled around the United States as well as the Holy Land. The next couple of months found me ordering each of these books and savoring the messages and miracles brought about by this simple man of faith.
For this blog I would like to relate one of the solutions proposed in Grizone's book, Joshua and the City which takes place in a large metropolitan city, much like, if not, New York City. Initially, he befriends a single-parent family and helped the two teenage sons begin their own furniture upholstering business. By working with these young people he brought about great changes in a section of the city that was suffering from the same symptoms of many low-income neighborhoods. Many unaddressed and unattended to social ills were brought to light and with community spirit and pride, answers were found.
In another part of town, Joshua brings healing to a couple who had grown apart because the husband, owner of a large corporation, found more satisfaction in his work than in his marriage relationship...or so the wife believed. Slowly but quite surely, healing brought joy back to their marriage and their lives and they found great admiration for this humble man of love.
One of the suggestions I felt had great merit was taking the burden of public high schools from the state and place it in the hands of large corporations. The reasoning behind this suggestion to the corporate owner was that within the curriculum of the schools, participating corporations could find students with talents and skills in specific areas of the work force and begin educating them before graduation. This way, students would have valued jobs waiting for them upon graduation, companies would have qualified workers for necessary positions, and the responsibility of paying for public education would be shifted away from the state (and federal) government to private funding.
I value education, however, all things taken into consideration, I believe that higher education has becoming greatly over-rated. All too many graduates, young and older alike, who have invested time and money to earn higher degrees of education are out of a job and collecting unemployment, under employed, or seeking additional education to qualify for jobs now requiring a greater degree of technology, a result of our out-of-balance and out-of-touch educational requirements..
Educational systems must be able to keep up with the technology of today. Not all students are college material but feel the need to follow the present system if they want the coveted high-salaried jobs in fields of endeavor that are changing constantly as a result of the rapidly changing technology of today and tomorrow.
Yet, there is also a great need for workers. Yes, people who have talents and skills that lie outside the perimeter of the corporate world. Technology has also touched every aspect of the service industry, and service workers are still needed and must be trained, but not necessarily in a college setting and without the pressure of college curriculum and unrelated classes. And, while a well rounded education is certainly something to strive for, many people have continued their education later in life, either by taking classes of their choosing or through self-education, much of which comes with the maturity and gradual wisdom of life and the lessons of living.
I think Joshua's suggestion is something that is worth consideration in any country. Our economy needs more balance, more jobs, more job-specific options for education. So, why not begin on the level where our young people are beginning to think about their own future. Young adults that feel they have succeeded in the responsibilities of life are much more apt to feel positively about themselves and their chances of succeeding if employment promotion is their decision later in life. Wouldn't we be doing our young people a greater service in educating them for the jobs that are out there instead of requiring them to sacrifice four to eight years in higher education only to find that there are just no jobs available for the level of education, high or low, that they possess?
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