Racine, Wisconsin
When I was out in Portland OR last month, I met for the first time an 84-year-old cousin (daughter of my paternal grandfather's sister) who had grown up on a farm in Wisconsin.Her childhood stomping grounds were a place of happy childhood memories for me, too. When I was about 12, my family had visited my cousin's brother's farm near Waterford in western Racine County. I'd had a wonderful time watching the dairy operations and just generally getting to see how farming works. I even had a chance to drive one of the tractors -- just far enough to realize that moving in a straight line was nowhere near as easy as it looked.
After I got back home to Maryland, the school year rolled around, and one of our first big assignments was to write a report about one of the other states. I chose Wisconsin. The state has continued to have a special place in my heart ever since.
Today's New York Times has an article by Steve Lohr about contemporary Racine that lets me compare the city today to what I remember of Racine from when Cousin Karle took me there years ago.
The main point of the article is how the municipal leaders and much of the citizenry recognize the importance in today's economy of being adaptable and engaging in lifetime learning. For instance, Lohr describes a program set up by Olatoye Baiyewu, an immigrant from Nigeria. The program trains young men in construction trades.
Besides offering basic education on the construction trades, [Baiyewu's] six-week program requires his trainees to get a library card and to read books like "Animal Farm: and "Silas Marner. Workplace etiquette and personal finance are part of the curriculum. His training program is run on a shoestring budget with support from city and state governments and local foundations.The article also cites the experience of S.C. Johnson & Son (of Paste Wax and Windex fame), whose largest manufacturing facility is about five miles west of Racine. The factory is competitive with other facilities the company has in 70 countries around the world because the company has invested in machinery that enables workers to be increasingly productive.
Darnell Mason is a recent graduate. ... Mr. Mason, a high school graduate and a Navy veteran, seemed particularly impressed by the reading requirement. "They were real books that spark your intellect and get you thinking," he said. "In everyday society, all kinds of things are going to be thrown at you, so you have to be flexible, think things through and adapt."
An interior view of the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, a landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built 1936 to 1939 and 1944.For example, one long-time worker, Willie Poole, is operating a computerized warehouse management system for which he received six months of training. Lohr explains, "To help maximize efficiency, [Poole] works closely with planners, production-line leaders and others to refine inventory and manufacturing flows,notifying his team with instructions he transmits wirelessly from his computer to forklifts on the factory floor."
Over and above the nostalgia it evokes, the article leaves me with a strong sense of the centrality of training in Racine's efforts to link its economy to drivers of economic growth around the world.
Labels: Productivity
posted by Karen Nelson @ 1:56 PM
<< Home