Had an interesting meeting today.  I am on the school board for the local
high school.  Here in Vermont we have Regional Career Centers, these are
"career," "vocational" education centers that several high schools send
students to.  These small schools don't have enough students to each
support offering career classes.  The meeting was the Advisory Council for
the career center at the local school.  We are doing a multi-million dollar
remodeling/addition to our school of which a new career center is a major
part.  They are going to have a new class offering in masonry.  I didn't
know there was that much to know about laying brick and/or block but I
guess.....Anyway, the Director had the Clerk of the Work for the project,
who started life as a mason, and someone from the Dept of Employment and
Training there to speak about the program.  He said he had asked someone
from the local mason's union, which I didn't even know there was a local
mason's union, to come but they refused the invite because the masons
working on the addition were not union.  At that point I wondered to
myself, "So where's the inflatable rat?"

Now to my real question.  Is anyone here familiar with the MCAA, Mason
Contractors Association of America or IMTI, which is a stone masons
training institute?  If so what can you tell me about these institutions?
Is it really necessary to go to school to learn to be a mason?  What
happened to on the job training, getting your hands dirty and muscles
achey?  However, if I were younger I would love to go to this class.  Maybe
I'd learn how to squosh the stuff between my bricks.  Ruth
--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>