(upbeat music) - It's the other side of midnight with Frank Marano. - I know, I know, I know, I know. (upbeat music) - 20 minutes till the top of the hour, this is the other side of midnight, I'm Frank Marano. Sitting across on the eve of Independence Day from a gentleman who wants to start a new American revolution. I'm very pleased to be joined in studio by my friend Mike Porcelli, Master Mechanic, automotive expert, Army veteran, and a long time proponent of trade education. Mike, it's great to see you. - Good morning, Frank, thank you. - So what is this about a new American revolution? Are you trying to overthrow the government? - Well, I have to correct you on one thing. I didn't start this. - Okay. - I'm just trying to continue it. I've been fighting for many years. Since I left high school, I've been fighting to bring shop class back to schools because they started taking it out of schools while I was in high school. They tried to keep me out of shop class. - So tell me how teaching shop leads to a new American revolution. - Well, the revolution idea came from freedom. You know, if you're not free to do the work that you like to do, if you couldn't do radio, would you be free? - I wouldn't feel free. I'll tell you that. - Right, that's a good point. - The idea came to me a couple of years ago on the 4th of July that if we're not free to do the work that we're meant to do, the work that we love to do, we're not really free. And when I read the Declaration of Independence where it says pursuit of happiness, I took that to mean the pursuit of your happiest career. - So you've been talking about the need for trade education for a long time now. By the way, before we talk about what's happening now, why did schools get away from this? I know this was a pretty standard part of most high schools. You had home economics, you also had shop class. It, when did that change and why did that change? - Back when I was in school, in middle school, everybody had some form of shop class or home economics. While I was there, they started to remove it. My generation, all our parents wanted us all to go to college. And most, a lot of us did, I did. - And you're not anti-college? - I'm not anti-college, I have two degrees. I'm far from anti-college. I'm for all forms of education, but at the right time. Not everybody is meant to go to college right at high school. I know many people have gone to college, my wife went to college way after high school. Now she's a lawyer, so-- - Nobody's perfect. - I don't hold that against her. But people need the education that best suits them, best suits their talents and abilities. - So the reason it changed at a school level is because there was this desire and this belief that college heals all wounds, and let's try and get as many people in college as possible. - I guess the feeling was at the time a college graduates are better than non-college graduates. My father felt that way, he never went to college. He went through the Navy and the war, came home, started the business, had kids, and never went to college. He always regretted that he never went to college. - And when did this change? Was it a, did it was in the '70s, was the '80s? Was it more recent than that? - Started in the '60s. My high school had great shop programs. We had automotive, we had machine shop, we had printing, we had a lot of shop classes. The only one left is automotive, and it's much less than what it used to be. A lot of schools have eliminated shop classes entirely, I ask everybody I talk to. Most people, my age had shop class in middle school, some form, that it's almost completely gone. Everybody today says they kids have no shop class at all. I have a question about the bicycle from Seinfeld. They were gonna cut it in half, at the rate we're going, they won't have anybody with the ability to cut it in half. That's a good one. - So Mike, you've been talking about this a lot. You know, on your own radio show over the years, in your columns, and really wherever you could find an audience, letters to public officials, you're not the only one. I've heard John Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on Cheers, talking a lot about this. I've heard the people like Mike Rowe, who's got a whole enterprise of podcasts and media, he's very well known. He's been talking about this. Given the fact that, and I feel like I hear a lot of people talking about this, editorial pages, others, given the fact that a lot of folks, including you, have been talking about this, have you made any progress? Are there any school districts around the country that are moving in the right direction and bringing this back? - Yes, I visited a high school up in Westchester recently. They're building a whole new building for CTE, Career and Technical Education. I traveled out West over the last summer. A lot of schools out there have brought it back, or expanding programs. The problem is here locally, the city thinks that the Department of Education thinks they've done enough. They've got CTE programs, but it's not nearly enough. I say that at least 50% of school resources should be devoted to CTE shop class. - Is there any school district that you could point to anywhere in the country, really? Where you say, "Hey, those guys in XYZ City, "they're doing it right. "We need something like the XYZ City model." - I visited a school out in Colorado. The entire school, K to 12, is kids can use any kind of shop they want. They have, the kids there are building guitars with their hands. From kindergarten through 12th grade, the kids there can use any machine that they're capable of using. And they have the ability to learn how to use things, how to solve problems. I say we solve problems with tools. That's what mechanics do. - America, we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By honoring your sacred vocation of business, you impact your family, your friends, and your community. At Grand Canyon University, our MBA degree program is 100% online, with emphasis in business analytics and finance to help you reach your goals. Find your purpose at GCU, private, Christian, affordable. Visit gcu.edu. - Interesting. All right, now, one of the things that we have heard a bit from over the last few months is that the new generation, the younger generation, the Wall Street Journal did an article about this back in April. Generation Z, they're calling themselves the tool belt generation. They're saying more young people are choosing trades over college study, and the journal pointed out that at a time when all the things that you said, America needs more plumbers, more carpenters, generation Z is answering the call. I'm imagining you take this as a pretty positive sign. - Absolutely. I went to a trade show recently, a welding trade show. I met some high school students there. They all want to become welders. I met one young lady. She's a junior in high school. She wants to be a nuclear reactor welder. She knows she's gonna make $200,000 a year welding nuclear reactors. - How many college graduates make that kind of money? - Yeah, that's fair. That is not the one that I see in the mirror. - I met an employer there who wants to hire people to start at $60,000. - So it sounds like there's a note of optimism here that things are turning around a bit. - I'm encouraged. I meet a lot of young people. My students, I interviewed 100 students that came into our program last year. Out of the 100, only one had automotive in high school. Every one of them wanted it, only one got it. That tells you the status of shop class here in the city, in high schools. The DOE needs to do a lot more to bring more resources to meet the need. These kids want to learn, they want to learn trades, but they don't have the resources in the schools to let them do what they want. - You wrote a column back in May saying that CTE is actually key to saving civilization. People may agree with you, they may think you're onto something here, but come on, saving civilization. - I borrowed that line from John Ratzenberger, that's his line. - And so how does CTE save civilization? - Everything, we keep the lights on. People with tools keep everything running. If when we disappear, there'll be no lights, no cars, no trains, planes, buses, right? No food, you know, who's gonna harvest the food without tractors? - Yeah, that's not something we can have AI do yet with AI's not there. - We, the trades can never be replaced by AI. - How come? - Because we need people with hands, skilled hands. - You gotta make the machines that replace us all, right? - Who's gonna fix the AI robots? - Yeah, exactly. Hey, I mentioned Mike Rowe, he was the host of this show Dirty Jobs. I know you followed him because he has such a following. Is he having an impact on moving the needle on this at all? - Absolutely, and I see more and more celebrities are now getting on the bandwagon. You know, I met Adam Corolla the other night. He talks a lot about shop class. I watched, he did a podcast with Mike Rowe, and it was phenomenal. - Really? - So you saw Corolla, how was Corolla in person? - He's fantastic. - Yeah, no, he says-- - He's a big car guy too. - Oh, is that right? - Oh yeah. - Talk with Mike Porcelli. Mike, if folks wanna learn more about what you're doing, if they wanna check out your column, or maybe even get in touch with you, what's the best way to do that? - I'm in all the BQE newspapers, the Queen's Ledger. There's eight, I'm in eight papers in Brooklyn and Queens. You can get it online. If you Google Porcelli missed the mechanic, you'll find it. - Yeah, P-O-R-C-E-L-L-I. What's the next step in all this, Mike? Let's say you've convinced all the audience, and they wanna be part of your call for a new American revolution. How do they start? - I'm glad you asked. This just came to me the other day. When's the last time massive numbers of workers left the economy? World War II, all the men were taken out of the factories, and all the service workers and factory workers, all the men left town, right? Who replaced them, women. There were more and more women coming into the trades. I mentioned a young lady in high school who wants to be a nuclear welder, right? We need more push to get and encourage more women to join the trades. So I say we need a program like we had in World War II, where the women were instantly trained. When we were attacked in the end of 1941. So in 1942, most of the men left the factories. They were replaced instantly by women who learned on the job right away, right? We need the same kind of program to encourage people without the war. Without the war, yeah, we need to, because skilled workers are leaving the trades probably almost at almost the same rate that they left in World War II, right? So we did it back then. We replaced those workers overnight practically. Why can't we do the same thing now and encourage young people to learn the trade? Not force them into a trade, but a trade that they have the aptitude for, right? - You mentioned New York. I feel like I've heard some discussion from the school's chancellor in New York City that they're trying to move in this direction. I know you're a New Yorker as well. Have they made any progress on this front? - Yes, but slowly, slowly. You know, and I hope it's not gonna be too little too late. It's too little too late for a lot of my students who didn't have the opportunity in high school. Now they come to Bronx Community College and they will learn a trade, but they've lost two years. They could have been two years ahead in their career development. - Yeah, lastly, a point of personal privilege. You are the best-trained mechanic I've ever met. And my wife and I share a car, our brakes are squeaking. Now we had the brake pads replaced, but when we had them replaced maybe a month or so ago, they said the rotors are on back order and apparently they're now in. So I'm bringing this this morning, just in a couple hours, to the mechanic to get those rotors replaced. Will that put an end to the squeaking, do you think? - Depends on what the cause of the squeaking is. Is it the rotors or is it the pads? - Interesting. - Interesting. All right, Mike Porcelli, thank you. It is always a treat to see you. - Thanks for coming. - Thanks for coming.
