I HAVE a lazy good-for-nothing son who wouldn't work in an iron lung but lately he has expressed an interest in becoming a farrier.
I don't know why. The closest he has ever got to a horse is watching the racing channel.
Trouble is, he doesn't want to waste time going to TAFE or doing an apprenticeship. Instead, he reckons he can learn how to do it by watching YouTube videos.
Am I old fashioned in thinking that people actually need to be taught skills face to face?
Des, Drouin
Dear Des,
Oh kids today. They expect everything to be so easy. They think they can just pick up the tools of a trade and start making money.
But I must say, it is amazing the stuff you find on the web.
If you need to know how to adjust the tappets on a 1963 EH Holden ute, or how to crochet a life-size model of a Clydesdale, you can back it in someone has posted a video of it on YouTube.
My husband used it to help overhaul the gearbox on his Massey Ferguson courtesy of a nice man from Dakota called Randy. Mind you, I wasn't real happy about him doing it in the study while he watched it on the computer.
But I'm not quite sure YouTube is an accredited tertiary education institution - not yet anyway. There are limits to what you can learn from a three-minute blurry video with dodgy sound.
There are some things that are best learned on the job and with plenty of supervision - heart surgery springs to mind.
And if I were a horse having dirty great nails hammered into my feet, I'd prefer someone who learned the old-fashioned way.
